The 5th Wave Summary

Cassie believes she might be the last person last alive after aliens came to earth to exterminate humans. There have been four waves so far, including a bomb that knocked out electricity, an attack on a fault line that caused massive tidal waves, a virus spread by birds, and attacks by aliens (the Others) who have disguised themselves as humans. She used to be a normal teenager who lived with her mom, dad, and younger brother, Sammy, and she had a crush on a boy named Ben. But during the apocalypse, her mom died, and she ended up at a refugee camp with her dad and brother. At the camp, soldiers came to take all of the children, including Sammy, to a nearby military base, and Sammy gave Cassie his teddy bear before leaving. Cassie’s father sensed trouble and helped her procure a M16 rifle. One day, more soldiers led by Vosch came to the camp and killed everyone, including Cassie’s dad, with Cassie herself barely escaping.

Now on her own, Cassie believes she can’t trust anyone if she wants to survive. This leads to her using her rifle to shoot the Crucifix Soldier, a young man she thought was pulling a gun but was actually reaching for a crucifix. At one point, she gets pinned down near a highway by a sniper, taking a wound to the leg. She takes shelter and eventually ventures out into the snow, where she passes out.

Cassie wakes up and doesn’t know where she is at first. She learns that she’s in the farmhouse of Evan, a handsome young man who helps nurse her back to health from her leg injury. Cassie doesn’t trust Evan, but she doesn’t know whether he’s actually dangerous or if she’s just being paranoid. At one point Evan kisses Cassie and says she’s his reason for living, but Cassie is still confused about how she feels.

Meanwhile, Zombie is a boy who seems to be dying of the alien plague. His real name is Ben—the same Ben who used to know Cassie. One day, he gets taken from his refugee camp to Camp Haven, where he recovers in the hospital and is promptly enrolled in boot camp to train for war against the aliens. He is told that aliens have infected many humans and that the only way to tell them apart is to use a special eyepiece to look for a green glow around the head. Despite the cruelty of drill sergeant Reznik, Ben gets stronger and bonds with his squadmates like Ringer and Nugget (who is actually Sammy and was brought to the same camp after being taken away from Cassie).

Ben becomes the leader of his squad, and they head out on their first mission. Things go badly, with one of them dying, and Ben struggles to keep control of his squad mates. Ringer notices that there is something unusual about the mission and convinces Ben to remove the chip implanted in each of their necks. They discover that the sniper who has been firing at them during this mission is none other than Reznik, their drill sergeant, and they manage to kill him before he can shoot back. Ben and Ringer realize that they are the 5th Wave: the aliens’ plan is to get the last surviving humans to kill one another. Ben’s surviving squadmates go on the run, but Ben fakes an injury so that he can go back to Camp Haven and rescue Nugget/Sammy, who had to stay behind because he didn’t graduate from training.

Around the same time, Cassie too decides that she needs to break into Camp Haven to rescue Sammy. Evan insists on coming with her. Cassie is unsure about accepting help, and she begins to distrust Evan even more when she finally learns that he is actually an alien and the very same sniper who shot her leg. Evan promises that he will give up on his assignment to exterminate humans and says that he was always in favor of trying to coexist peacefully. He gives Cassie intel about Camp Haven and reveals that Vosch is not just the leader of the camp but the alien who spearheaded the whole invasion strategy. Cassie begins to trust him, but she insists on going into Camp Haven alone.

Ben and Cassie each make it into Camp Haven and come to rescue Sammy at the same time. Sammy has to jump in the middle to prevent the two of them from accidentally shooting each other, but once Cassie and Ben see each other, they recognize each other as former schoolmates. They team up to try to get Sammy out of the base but are captured by Vosch and his men. With some help from Evan, who disobeyed Cassie’s command to stay back and instead snuck into the camp, they manage to escape with Sammy, although Vosch himself gets away.

While the group is escaping the camp, Evan goes back to blow the whole place up and doesn’t return. Cassie, Ben, and Sammy narrowly manage to escape with some help from Ringer, who also disobeyed orders not to help. Cassie, Ben, and Sammy regroup with Ben’s surviving squad members, and Cassie and Ben watch the sunset as they contemplate what to do next.