The 5th Wave

Play trailer

2:25

The 5th Wave

PG-13

2016

1h 52m

Sci-Fi

Adventure

Mystery & Thriller

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

16%

Tomatometer

141 Reviews

38%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

The human race stands on the brink of extinction as a series of alien attacks decimate the planet, causing earthquakes, tsunamis and disease. Separated from her family, Ohio teenager Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) will do whatever it takes to reunite with her brother Sam. Fate leads her to form an alliance with Evan Walker (Alex Roe), a mysterious young man who may be her last hope. Forced to trust each other, Cassie and Evan fight for survival during the fifth assault from the invaders.

Critics Consensus

With unimpressive effects and plot points seemingly pieced together from previous dystopian YA sci-fi films, The 5th Wave ends up feeling like more of a limp, derivative wriggle.

Read Critics Reviews

Sara Michelle Fetters

MovieFreak.com

08/16/2016

1.5/4

With a terrific cast and a director who at least is making an attempt to shake up the literary dystopian status quo, there's really no reason for this one to be as outright terrible as it ultimately proves to be.

Go to Full Review

Roxana Hadadi

Chesapeake Family Magazine

08/02/2016

1.5/5

The 5th Wave is simultaneously boring and cringingly overwrought, with a bland protagonist, a completely nonsensical story, and another teen love triangle.

Go to Full Review

Udita Jhunjhunwala

Scroll.in

06/21/2016

The 5th Wave, which has echoes of Divergent and The Hunger Games, both of which have strong female protagonists, is too obviously just the introductory chapter.

Go to Full Review

David Griffiths

Subculture Entertainment

10/29/2024

3.5/5

The 5th Wave is a good action sci-fi that has a little more bite than some would predict. Easy-to-warm-to-characters and an interesting storyline means the audience quickly feels part of this new world

Go to Full Review

Don Shanahan

Every Movie Has a Lesson

10/13/2024

2/5

No one is going to take tactical gear-wearing, elementary school-age kids with pretend-intimidating codenames and armed with semi-automatic weapons seriously.

Go to Full Review

Joe Lipsett

Hazel & Katniss & Harry & Starr Podcast

06/18/2024

2/5

Despite featuring likeable actors like Grace-Moretz and Robinson, the film adaptation of Rick Yancey's novel has no time for anything. There's a propulsive need to barrel forward, but nothing lands (characters, plot, not even action).

Go to Full Review

Read all reviews

G W

@Tonopah 20h

Some interesting twists on the usual dystopian sci-fi genre. A couple truly surprising plot twists, but a couple absolute nonsense plot holes. I liked it but didn't love it.

See more

Martina P

@AuthenticM Feb 21

Cassie & Ewan 🥰💞 I would like to see them happy together, with Sam. Thank you for this great movie!

See more

David W

@Sternhammer Feb 11

Far from terrible but just as far from being great. If you're in the mood for a middling 'teen' feeling sci-fi flick then it's passable but certainly not all that memorable. The acting is of variable quality and the special effects are surprising poor. Still, it'll pass it's running time OK despite some glaring pacing lulls and internal logic discrepancies.

See more

Nathan M.

@MoonKnight Feb 5

A b rated movie, with bad acting, and absolutely horrible logic. For example, weeks into the apocalypse, and Chloe still has makeup on?!

See more

Kevin -.

@ikevin Jan 26

This movie has a talented cast that gives it a good try, and starts out promising before rapidly collapsing into a movie with a storyline that must have been written by a 3rd grader. The special effects are low budget tv-series level bad.

See more

VITALII H

@freakynickison Jan 16

I don’t know how I missed and overlooked this movie. It was actually pretty good! I am so mad that despite the book having 3 installments we only got one movie, yup, there’s no sequel, why? "The 5th Wave" is one gem on 2010s’s dystopian movies crown among many others. Of course there were a couple of scenes where the characters got out of trouble pretty easily, considering that those are children that went against basically aliens. But I really liked what I saw. Why no sequel tho? Missed opportunity, what went wrong?…

See more

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

POST RATING

J Blakeson

Director

Chloë Grace Moretz

Cassie Sullivan

Nick Robinson

Ben Parish

Ron Livingston

Oliver Sullivan

Maggie Siff

Lisa Sullivan

Alex Roe

Evan Walker

The 5th Wave: Official Clip - Shot in the Leg

2:29

The 5th Wave: Official Clip - Afraid You'd Shoot Me

2:25

The 5th Wave: Official Clip - We Are the 5th Wave

2:27

The 5th Wave: Official Clip - The New Guy

2:07

The 5th Wave: Official Clip - The Parasites True Form

2:17

The 5th Wave: Official Clip - I Choose You

2:41

The 5th Wave: Official Clip - Losing Family

2:13

The 5th Wave: Official Clip - Did You Shoot Me?

2:45

The 5th Wave: Official Clip - Hope Makes Us Human

2:26

The 5th Wave: Official Clip - The End of the World

4:10

View more videos

Voyagers

25%

55%

Voyagers

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Voyagers

Ad Astra

83%

40%

Ad Astra

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Ad Astra

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

47%

54%

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Passengers

30%

63%

Passengers

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Passengers

Jurassic World

72%

78%

Jurassic World

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Jurassic World

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

On DVD This Week: Joy, The 5th Wave, The Choice, and More

Box Office: Leo Fights His Way Into #1 Spot with The Revenant

Parental Guidance: How Family-Friendly Are The 5th Wave and The Boy?

The 5th Wave: Trailer 1

2:25

The 5th Wave: International First Look

2:28

View more videos

View more photos

Synopsis

The human race stands on the brink of extinction as a series of alien attacks decimate the planet, causing earthquakes, tsunamis and disease. Separated from her family, Ohio teenager Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) will do whatever it takes to reunite with her brother Sam. Fate leads her to form an alliance with Evan Walker (Alex Roe), a mysterious young man who may be her last hope. Forced to trust each other, Cassie and Evan fight for survival during the fifth assault from the invaders.

Director: J Blakeson
Producer: Tobey Maguire, Graham King, Matthew Plouffe, Lynn Harris
Screenwriter: Susannah Grant, Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner
Distributor: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Production Co: GK Films, Material Pictures
Rating: PG-13 (Language|Brief Teen Partying|Some Sci-Fi Thematic Elements|Violence and Destruction)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 22, 2016, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 16, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $34.9M
Runtime: 1h 52m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)