Despite the fact that Chloë Grace Moretz has been in our consciousness for more than 10 years (little Chelsea Lutz!) she’s still just 18, and that means she sits squarely in young adult territory. Chlo dabbled in the genre last year with the not-Fault in Our Stars tearjerker If I Stay, but this is her first go round in the YA franchise realm.

Moretz plays Cassie, a young Earthling weathering the waves of alien attacks that have befallen our planet. Cassie is on the run and out to save her little brother, Sam (Zackary Arthur), and along the way she will enter complicated love triangles, face down extra terrestrial invaders, and likely endeavor to preserve her humanity in the face of overwhelming opposition and hopelessness. So, you know, it’s a dystopia—but judging by the visuals in this trailer it’s also a natural disaster movie. With Hunger Games wrapping up this year and Divergent being a strangely boring half failure, The Maze Runner looks like the most logical heir to the YA money-printing throne, but if 5th Wave can manage to surprise audiences and critics like Maze managed to, then we might have some fun competition in the hot-teens-kicking-ass-and-saving-humanity arena.

The cast is also worth giving some attention to. Liev Schrieber, Maria Bello, and Ron Livingston are the very capable adults on the bill, and there’s a really interesting mix of young performers on offer here. Moretz is ever an interesting figure (preposterously adult and childlike at the same time), joined here by Maika Monroe (beguiling in It Follows) and Tony Revolori (very entertaining in Dope and Grand Budapest Hotel). We’re into this adventurous trio, so we’re hoping Wave can shake off the rapidly accumulating YA dust that’s settling on all those franchises studios snapped up after Twilight exploded and give us something actually worthy of the talent in the cast.

Pause at: 0:44 for The Others. There’s a sinking kind of terror that comes with this visual at 0:58. An other at 1:27…? Plot line at 1:43. Other plot line at 1:44. Maika Monroe sighting at 2:06!
Essential Quote: “If the 5th wave succeeds, humanity will be wiped from the face of the Earth.”—Colonel Vosch (Schrieber)