Review: Companion (2025)

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In Isaac Asimov’s robot novels and stories, including his famous collection I, Robot, he imagines a world where robots are governed by the Three Laws of Robotics. The first law is the most famous: “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” Companion essentially imagines a world where Asimov’s first law is interpreted through a romantic lens: “A robot may not injure their romantic partner or, through inaction, allow their partner to come to harm.” This might be a soft spoiler in a sense because Companion takes 30 minutes to reveal that its lead character is, in fact, a robot companion. But this revelation is essential to the film’s modest appeal as a low-budget sci-fi thriller that blends robot storytelling with tried-and-true slasher conventions.

In the film, Iris (Sophie Thatcher)—her name is an anagram for Siri—goes for a cottage weekend with her boyfriend, Josh (Jack Quaid). She knows Josh’s friends don’t much care for her, but she’s willing to do anything to make her man happy. And when they arrive at the cottage, the home of Kat’s (Megan Suri) new boyfriend, who happens to be a Russian oligarch, she thinks the weekend could go pretty well, despite her misgivings. But after the boyfriend makes an unwanted move on Iris at the beach and she violently defends herself, the weekend goes to hell. In the aftermath, she learns that she’s actually a robotic companion for the man she thought was her boyfriend. For instance, her memories of their romantic meet cute are actually implants and she’s completely powerless to his vocal controls and the app that modifies her on his phone. She also learns that the scenario at the cottage is all a ruse to manipulate her programming to get away with a lucrative crime.

Companion reveals twist after twist in its tight runtime, compensating for the contained setting and small cast of characters by being fast and furious with its plotting. It’s a tech thriller, in a sense, but it also works in elements of the Coen-esque crime thriller and the cabin-in-the-woods slasher, with the so-called monster as the film’s central character. It’s fun, fast-paced, pretty funny, but nothing too novel. For a January release, it does the job.

Sophie Thatcher is excellent in the lead role and does a lot to help the film succeed. She never overplays the robotic aspects of her character, even after the reveal, but remains sympathetic and impressively determined: a variation on the final girl, but also the misunderstood movie monster. It helps that Thatcher has an ethereal, pale beauty that would make sense for a robot made to be the ideal female companion for male loners. Jack Quaid is perhaps even better as the boyfriend, Josh. Aside from his voicework as Brad Boimler on Star Trek: Lower Decks and his small part as Richard Feynman in Oppenheimer, Quaid usually plays douchebags (think of his role in 2022’s Scream), a role he excels at. He’s clever and handsome and funny enough to make you like him in the early going, but with each reveal about his character and his plans, you start to see through the smarm that hides a deeply angry, deeply bitter loser.

The supporting cast is amusing as well and includes Harvey Guillén as Josh’s old friend Eli, who’s more pathetic than he seems, Lukas Gage as his sensitive, a bit-too-perfect boyfriend, Patrick, Suri as the superficial Kat, and Rupert Friend as the Russian oligarch bankrolling the whole weekend.

Most of the pleasure of Companion is in watching these characters navigate the abrupt twists and constant impediments that arise throughout the weekend. But even as director Drew Hancock plays to the twists, he’s literate enough to keep the sci-fi aspects foregrounded in the film’s thematic interests. It might not be evident to most of its audience, but Companion could play as an Asimov short story, right down to its depictions of saintly (robo)women manipulated by caddish men (who happen to bear something of a resemblance to the author himself, but that’s another story).

The cast and the concept carry the day for this film that succeeds in its modest ambitions. But mostly I admired the dedication to the genre and the sense that the movie is playing on classic robot stories, even if it’s as equally indebted to 1980s slashers. The film might lack novelty, but at least it’s leaning on a solid foundation.

6 out of 10

Companion (2025, USA)

Written and directed by Drew Hancock; starring Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén, Rupert Friend.