The first trailer for The 5th Wave has arrived, promising desire, destruction, and death.
Based on Rick Yancy’s young adult novel of the same name, The 5th Wave follows Cassie Sullivan (Chloe Moritz), one of the few human survivors of a ruthless alien invasion. In the trailer, dubbed an “international sneak peek,” Cassie recounts the first four waves that have decimated humanity.
The 5th Wave trailer follows Cassie as she watches her world collapse — literally — under assaults of eerily biblical proportions. First, the power goes. Then flooding destroys coastal cities. Next, a plague ravages humanity, leaving few survivors. And finally, the invasion begins.
“The Others were already among us, exterminating anyone who’d survived,” Cassie grimly recounts.
But even as Commander Vosch (Liev Schrieber) warns of a fifth wave of the attack, other elements of the story come into play. Ben Parish (Nick Robinson) joins an army of survivors, along with the brutal Ringer (Maika Monroe), and Cassie finds an unlikely ally in Evan Walker (Alex Roe) as she fights through the wildernesses to find her little brother, Sam.
Related: Rick Yancey talks teddy-bears and transformation in The 5th Wave film
Fans of Yancey’s novel will spot several pivotal scenes in The 5th Wave trailer, including Cassie’s opening parlay with the wounded stranger, and her terrified race across the highway. In addition, The 5th Wave film looks like it will offer a global perspective unavailable in the book, as landmarks are (rather gloriously) destroyed in the invasion’s concussive waves.
Though The 5th Wave trailer does end on something of a hopeful note, there is no question that the film adaptation seems to have captured the compelling brutality of the book. The all-important teddy bear also makes a brief appearance, and will hopefully receive more attention in future trailers.
With a few notable exceptions, young adult adaptations have been fairing poorly among critics and at the box office in recent years. Hopefully, the thoughtful intensity of The 5th Wave will help this movie distinguish itself — and perhaps restore a certain credibility to the beloved genre.
The 5th Wave crashes into theaters on Jan. 15, 2016.