Movie review
January 14, 2016 · 112 min · PG-13
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
The 5th Wave is a 2016 sci-fi action movie in which 16-year-old Cassie Sullivan survives four devastating alien attack waves on Earth and fights to reunite with her younger brother while navigating military deception and uneasy alliances. The story mixes post-apocalyptic survival, suspense, and a conventional teen romance in a straightforward YA framework. No audience-visible identity politics, activist dialogue, forced diversity signaling, or modern social-justice messaging appear in the narrative, casting, or marketing.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The 5th Wave.
Woke representation / casting
Casting places a capable teen girl in survival and combat roles alongside male characters in a modern American setting, with no visible diversity quotas, race or gender swaps, or identity signaling in lead or supporting choices.
Woke political dialogue
Occasional lines note humanity’s history of violence as alien justification, delivered as pure sci-fi context without activist language, identity framing, or current political references.
Identity-driven story themes
Narrative engine is alien invasion survival, family reunion, trust, and deception with standard heterosexual teen romance; no recurring or central focus on race, gender, LGBTQ elements, or social justice.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Military leadership is shown as deceptive and willing to use child soldiers, framed as desperate sci-fi survival tactics without reframing into critiques of patriarchy, capitalism, whiteness, or modern systemic issues.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No measurable backlash claiming woke messaging, forced diversity, activist dialogue, or propaganda; all criticism remained on story execution and effects.
Creator track record context
Susannah Grant’s earlier work features strong female protagonists, but this 2016 adaptation of a non-activist source shows no pattern of injecting identity politics or social-justice framing.
Production
