Aliens, major cities, and a family separated by chaos are all elements we’ve seen mixed together before. Yet somehow, the film adaptation of The 5th Wave looks like it provides a fresh spin on just what those things can do for a story. You can judge for yourself, as we’ve landed a look at the first trailer, which you can see below:
The Playlist stumbled on the trailer, which dropped today in a rather low key fashion, and it honestly looks pretty solid. The 5th Wave, based on the Rick Yancey book of the same name, tells the story of Cassie – a girl who’s persevered through four waves of a hostile alien invasion, and is trying to save her brother as a fifth and final wave is preparing to get underway. While the storyline sounds a bit derivative, the look and feel of this trailer really sells the film as a product for all ages, particularly with Ron Livingston and Liev Schreiber helping out as two of the prerequisite authority figures.
Of course, this is already sounding like Independence Day meets The Hunger Games, but that’s not particularly a bad thing. With the titular “5th Wave” sounding like a re-hash of the plot driving aspect of Stephenie Meyer’s The Host, you could be borrowing from worse influences in the YA landscape. Yet, The 5th Wave looks to be a more intense experience than most teen-aimed thrillers dare to take on. Even better is the fact that while there’s obviously going to be a love triangle that will probably last throughout the entire trilogy, should this franchise go the distance, it doesn’t look to be a massive selling point in this trailer.
Instead of watching Chloe Grace Moretz fawning over boys, her character seems to be closer to Hit Girl, as she struggles to keep it together in order to save her brother. We see Cassie scrounging for supplies and toting an assault rifle, instead of waiting for some shirtless hunk to come along and save the day. Even her voice over portrays that she understands the gravity of the situation. Two things are clear about Cassie in this trailer: she’s ready for action, and she’s focused on saving her brother at any cost. If this holds true during the finished product of The 5th Wave, we could see a worthy successor to the kick-ass spirit of Katniss Everdeen’s soon-to-end dominance over the box office.
This would obviously be music to Sony’s ears, considering they’re the studio that’s got The 5th Wave on their docket. Much like Lionsgate and The Hunger Games, the studio is poising this film for an off season test run, which could yield to the sequels – The Infinite Sea and The Last Star – being groomed for more tentpole friendly release dates. With The Hunger Games pulling in $152.5 million its first weekend, one imagines Sony’s hoping for a similar result before greenlighting any further adventures.
They shouldn’t hope too hard, though, as The 5th Wave doesn’t have as big of a market push as Suzanne Collins’ runaway literary hit did. Which means if you’re a fan of The 5th Wave, and if you have any intention on the subsequent books being adapted into films of their own, you should definitely show up to the theater when it’s released on January 15, 2016.
