COMPANION movie poster | ©2025 Warner Bros. / New Line Cinemas

Rating: R
Stars: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Harvey Guillén, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Rupert Friend
Writer: Drew Hancock
Director: Drew Hancock
Distributor: Warner Bros./New Line Cinema
Release Date: January 31, 2025

Since it’s implied in the poster and stated in the trailer, it’s probably not a huge spoiler to say that COMPANION centers on a human-like robot (most of us would consider her an android) named Iris (Sophie Thatcher). Iris is an emotional support companion, whose duties are not limited to but include enthusiastic sex with her owner.

As it is also stated in the trailer and in the first moments of the film, it feels fair to note that Iris introduces herself by saying that the first most indelible moment of her existence was when she met Josh (Jack Quaid) – and the second was when she killed him.

Despite us going in knowing all of this, writer/director Drew Hancock puts in one twist after another, including who really knows what’s happening, who thinks they know what’s happening, how people find out what’s happening, and of course, what actually happens.

COMPANION is very clever, but never at the expense of character development, plot logic, or momentum. Every time we have a question, we can depend on receiving an eventual answer that makes sense.

We see Iris and Josh meet cute in a grocery store. They lock eyes and in no time at all are madly in love. What could possibly go wrong?

Iris and Josh go to a weekend getaway in a secluded mansion in the woods. This is one of the homes of Sergey (Rupert Friend), the extremely wealthy boyfriend of their friend Kat (Megan Suri). Other guests for the weekend include likewise in-love couple Eli (Harvey Guillén) and Patrick (Lukas Gage).

Iris has no idea that she’s not a flesh-and-blood human. She comes out of the box with the programming that author Isaac Asimov long ago laid down as the rules of robotics, including the primary directive that a robot may not harm, or allow to come to harm through inaction, any humans, or other robots (unless it conflicts with that first rule), or him/herself (again, unless it conflicts with that first rule). Again, from the opening, we gather that this gets circumvented.

We expect COMPANION to be darkly funny, and hope it will be suspenseful. It is both of these, but it is also surprisingly touching at times, in ways we don’t anticipate.

Thatcher is adroit and full of heart, and Quaid makes Josh a realistically all-too-identifiable “regular” fellow. Guillén is delightful, and Gage has gentle depth. Suri uses Kat’s restlessness and ambivalence to round her out, and Friend is suitably expansive as Sergey.

There is metaphor aplenty in COMPANION. In fact, it’s not hard to recall some other recent films and feel like they aspired to be this one (minus the robot part), but didn’t quite know how to get there. But what may be best about COMPANION is that its messages are secondary to its method. For those who like this subgenre, it’s a total blast.

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