Iris is a young woman who is going to an isolated lakehouse together with the love of her life: her boyfriend Josh. She fondly recalls how they met for the first time at a grocery store, where eyes met and hearts locked in an instant connection. Sounds a little overly romantically idealized? Well…it is. Despite Iris being head over heels for Josh, we quickly notice that something in their relationship is kinda off. When they meet up with Josh’s friends Kat, the couple Eli and Patrick, and Kat’s boyfriend Sergey who owns the lakehouse, things quickly go wrong, with Iris being the center of it all. And it’s at this point we find out that Iris is, in fact, not a human: she’s a companion robot, made exclusively to fulfill the needs of lonely people (and, probably most often, scumbags who wants to treat someone badly while easily getting away with it). And the best part? These robots aren’t even aware that they are robots, programmed to be fully loyal and committed to the person they “love“ without question, no matter how badly they are treated. Every narcissist’s dream, for sure. Josh had plans for Iris, of course, but those plans are botched once she becomes aware of her situation.
Companion is a science fiction thriller written and directed by Drew Hancock. It grossed $36.7 million against a budget of $10 million, and has received fairly positive reviews. The core themes of the movie is control, autonomy, and of course the dangers of technology if it gets in the wrong hands. Underneath is also a very obvious metaphor for a toxic relationship consisting of manipulation and control. Iris, being a robot, is quite physically controlled by an app in Josh’s possession, but once she becomes aware of this she manages to gain a certain control over her own self.
It’s no secret that technology can be both good and bad, depending on how people use it. Unfortunately, when new technology is created, we often see how many people are at the forefront to use it mainly by the means of exploiting others (just look at generative AI as a prime example of this). The concept of “companion robots“ in this film opens up for so many ways for bad people to use them for various purposes. All of this comes in stark contrast to how Iris is, ironically, the most “human“ character in the movie. The majority of the other people are complete assholes with little or no qualms regarding other people’s lives and well-being as long as they can gain something from it. Once Iris finds out that she is, in fact, not a human, she is also thrown into a full existential horror where free will at first seems to be completely out of her grasp, but she still tries to fight for it. Metaphorically, one could easily consider this scenario as someone realizing how toxic their relationship is, and tries to break out from it.
Companion is a fun movie about how human aggression and violence can easily become an ethical issue when given control over something that emulates human emotions, yet have no control over their lives and have no rights like that of real humans. While this is far from the first time similar concepts have been explored in movies or other media, it still felt like a fresh take, especially in these days when a situation like this seems considerably less far-fetched than it was just a few years ago.
Writer and director: Drew Hancock
Country & year: USA, 2025
Actors: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén, Rupert Friend, Jaboukie Young-White, Matt McCarthy, Marc Menchaca, Woody Fu, Ashley Lambert
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26584495/
