'The 5th Wave' Trailer: It's the Multi-Stage Apocalypse

The upcoming sci-fi thriller The 5th Wave looks like a highlight reel of all the ways we’ve seen humanity obliterated in post-apocalyptic movies. There’s a hovering spacecraft with hostile extraterrestrials (here called “The Others”). There’s a blackout across the universal grid. There’s disease. There are tidal waves. There are aliens that inhabit the bodies of people. Really, the only thing missing here are zombies.

Ironically then, the trailer (watch above) starts off with a scene that feels fresh out of The Walking Dead, with our shotgun-toting heroine Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) scavenging an abandoned gas station for food before investigating a noise in a back room. We then learn about the invasion that’s got her in this predicament: After the ETs arrived, they began wiping out humanity in a five-tier approach: Darkness, Destruction, Infection, Invasion, and finally, the Fifth Wave, which you could call Inhabitation (aliens taking over human vessels). Considering she’s already survived the first four phases, you can bet your butt that Kick-Ass star Moretz’s Cassie is one tough cookie.

Based on the popular YA novel by Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave features a supporting cast that includes Ron Livingston, Nick Robinson (who you’ll recognized from Jurassic World), and Liev Schreiber. Not spotted in the trailer but cast in a crucial role as Ringer: It Follows breakout star Maika Monroe.

The 5th Wave opens Jan. 15. Watch our recent “Firsts” interview with Monroe: