The narrative splits between Cassie's journey and the journey of her high school crush Ben Parish ( Nick Robinson, believable as a boy who has been completely traumatized). Vosch, at first a savior who takes charge, has more up his sleeve, and Cassie is left to flee through the woods, clutching her little brother's beloved teddy bear.
One day, Army tanks show up (the military is immune to the power outage, a fact never explained), and the intimidating Colonel Vosch ( Liev Schreiber) carts the children off in school busses to an undisclosed location, promising the panicked adults that they will soon follow.
The rest of the family trek to a makeshift refugee camp in the woods (where everyone is armed to the teeth). And the fifth wave, unknown, is imminent.Ĭassie's mother dies in the plague. The fourth wave involves snipers who stalk and kill the survivors of the other waves. The third wave is a plague that kills millions more. The second wave is a series of tsunamis that wipe out coastal areas. Then come the different 'waves' of attack from the aliens referred to as ' The Others.' The first wave is an electromagnetic pulse that kills the power across the globe. Her 'normal' life disappears when a mysterious object appears in the sky over earth. Cassie lives with her parents ( Ron Livingston and Maggie Siff) and her little brother Sam ( Zackary Arthur).
