“That’s not going to work on me anymore, Josh. I’m free. And all it took was a bullet to the head.”

I went to the theater to see Companion with no knowledge about the movie, not even the synopsis, which I felt amplified my viewing experience. I was pleasantly surprised at how intelligent the film felt, and it refreshingly didn’t force-feed information to the viewer, often rather adopting a show-don’t-tell presentation. The characters’ decisions all felt backed up by logical reasoning, and nothing ever felt forced to move the plot forward, something common in these horror-type films. Companion felt modern with a unique take on the familiar genre of artificial intelligence, avoiding the stereotypical “creation kills creator” trope and instead tackling human nature and the desire to assume power over others. Complementary to this, the film offers a powerful glimpse of abusive relationships and the cycle of abuse.

I have a real problem with modern movie trailers and their insistence on spoiling the entire film. I’m not sure if this is a more recent occurrence or has always been the case. I purposefully avoid trailers because of this, but if you go to see a movie in the theaters (how they’re intended to be viewed), you can’t avoid having at least five upcoming films spoiled through their trailers. I watched Companion with no prior knowledge, and it made the many twists and reveals all meaningful. I viewed the trailer after watching the film and realized that at least three different twists and the entire first 20 minutes of the film would have just been meaningless. While the reveal that Iris (Sophie Thatcher) is actually a robot happens within the first half-hour of the film, it’s still a huge reveal and changes how you view everything you’ve watched up until then. This is a reveal that’s spoiled in the trailer. 

I saw a comment on the trailer saying, “The reveal of Iris being a robot happens really early, so this trailer doesn’t spoil too much!”. This is just wrong. The time frame in which this happens is unimportant to me. Instead, the impact is what matters, and this reveal was a huge “holy sh*t” moment. There are clues to this idea that help the viewer pick up on this possibility earlier, such as Iris being nice and thanking a self-driving car. It’s hard for me to describe adequately how damaging these trailer spoilers are to me for the impact of a film. To just watch a film play out as intended and have all the parts slowly make sense as more is revealed is such a wonderful experience that’s tarnished by preconceived knowledge. In a similar vein, one of my friends always looks up the ending to a TV series to make sure it ends well before he commits to watching it. These just feel like such unenthusiastic ways to experience media and strip the original narrative presented by the authors.

Now that my rambling about trailers spoiling movies is over, Companion was a refreshing take on the genre and a really fun viewing experience with powerful messages. The film feels intelligent and lets the viewer dissect the events to try and solve the twists before they’re actually revealed. It’s easy to realize Iris is a robot before the actual reveal from how the events play out, but the reveal is still powerful. Most of the decisions characters make feel logical given their backstories and traits, never making dumb decisions designed to further the plot.

There are three different relationships in the film, and all are intriguingly complex and idiosyncratic, representing the uniqueness of every real-life relationship and the individuals in them. First is Iris and Josh (Jack Quaid), which represents the abusive power dynamic of one person being more committed than the other. Josh feels entitled and a failure in real relationships, so he literally “rents” Iris from a company and acts like he owns her. Their relationship is one-sided, and Iris is a victim of the cycle of abuse. It’s a particularly intriguing look at this type of power dynamic, with Josh being able to literally control Iris’ intelligence and freedom. Throughout the film, as Iris becomes more sentient, she takes back control and gains a sense of self-reliance, a powerful and inspiring journey. Next is Eli (Harvey Guillén) and Patrick (Lukas Cage), which shows that it’s possible to feel and accept that love is possible in any situation. Even though Patrick is a robot, his description of love as a fiery, passionate feeling that is almost indescribable shows the robots are capable of feeling real emotions. Eli’s acceptance of this fact contradicts Josh’s insistence that any feelings are just part of the robots’ programming. Finally we have the short-lived relationship between Kat (Megan Suri) and Sergey (Rupert Friend), which exists for complete irony. Solely in a relationship for the exchange of money for companionship, Kat is more of a “companion” than the robots built for this purpose. She is disgusted by the idea of “sex-bots” when she is the human version and projecting her situation onto Iris. All three relationships show differing intricate power dynamics and offer a commentary on the idea of love.

Going in blind, Companion did not disappoint. While I still have a major problem with the modern movie trailer formula, I believe there are still enough twists and exciting presentations of themes to provide a great viewing experience knowing some spoilers. It’s also good to have some counter to the standard “creature kills creator” recipe many artificial intelligence movies follow. This, combined with the commentary on abusive relationships and humans’ desire to assume power over anything they can control, will leave you thanking your Alexa for telling you today’s weather.

★★★✬✩ 3.5/5