Ronit J

Companion (2025) Synopsis:

A weekend getaway with friends at a remote cabin turns into chaos after it’s revealed that one of the guests is not what they seem.

Companion (2025) Review:

I decided to watch Companion for two reasons: 1) the trailer was funny and intriguing, and 2) it’s produced by Zach Cregger, the mind behind Barbarian (2022) and Weapons (2025). Now, the concept itself isn’t all that innovative. But the black comedy treatment was appealing enough to make me give 90 minutes of my life to watch this.

Companion begins with Iris (Sophie) narrating about her life and relationship with Josh (Jack Quaid). The film feels like any regular romantic film, but there are a few hints of something sinister lurking behind the façade. That façade finally shatters when Iris kills Sergey (Rupert Friend) after he tries to force himself on her.

An Interesting, Albeit Flawed, Concept

A companion bot (also known as s*x bot) is no new concept in science fiction. Alex Garland’s Ex Machina did a fantastic job exploring that concept through the lens of hedonism, exploitation, and more. Companion is a more fun-filled, black comedy idea that could have been a masterpiece. Of course, many sci-fi stories start with a fascinating idea, which slowly stoops towards the darker implications of said idea. Companion takes a meet-cute romantic film and flips it over with Sergey’s death.

What follows, however, is an incoherent string of events that feel haphazardly pieced together.

At first, you feel genuine dread at the fact that these unsuspecting folks now have a killer robot on the loose. But no. Turns out… bum bum bum! Josh and Kat (Megan Suri) were in on the plan already. They wanted to kill Sergey and steal his millions, and jailbreaking Iris was key to that plan.

Which then begs the question—why is Josh being so considerate to a piece of metal and plastic? Almost none of Josh’s actions make sense, unless you’re looking through ‘plot convenience’ tinted glasses. He’s the perfect boyfriend in some scenes, an idiot in other scenes, and an evil mastermind in some others. All this results in a poorly strung-together plot that hinges desperately on very weak threads of logic.

Could have… Should have been a Short Film

There is a point in every story where you need to stop complicating, and start resolving. But Companion seems to ignore that point. Instead, every progressive plot point ends up adding more to the already jumbled mess that it has created. Which means… when the time comes to resolve these issues, the film does so in the most basic, lazy, and uninspired manner.

Eli (Harvey Guillén) and Patrick (Lukas Gage) are now in on the plot? Let’s off one of them to simplify. Oh, a cop gets involved? Okay, let’s off him too. Why are Josh and Kat doing this? Because… oh look, cool technology; focus on that, not logic.

The more I reflect on Companion, the more I am reminded of my younger days. I too have been through phases as a writer where some ideas just weren’t developing the way I wanted them to. So, I’d complicate the story with twists and shock-value turns, only to end up with an incoherent mess that feels like it’s lost the original plot. Companion feels exactly like that from around the 40-minute mark.

And that’s a shame, because Companion had some genuinely interesting moments and ideas that display talent. Some of the jokes are genuinely funny. Iris’ attempts to escape, which results in a cat-and-mouse chase had some innovative ideas that built tension.

Alas, the last 30-40 minutes of the film completely lost it. The film couldn’t decide which direction it wanted to go, so it tried to do everything, and in the process, failed at everything.

Companion (2025) Ending Explained (SPOILERS)

I kind of don’t want to explain this, because the end kept dragging on unnecessarily long.

Josh manages to take over Patrick’s ownership, and uses him to catch Iris. Sadly, that move also leads to Patrick killing Officer Hendrix. Kat, fed up with all the extra collateral, takes her share of money and tries to leave. But, a stray command from Josh leads to Patrick killing her to ‘stop her’. Finally, Josh reduces Iris’ intelligence to 0%, and incapacitates her. He lies to Empathix that Iris went rogue. While taking her away, the technicians mention they’ll be scrubbing her internal footage to make sure there wasn’t any fraud.

Worried he’ll be caught, Josh unleashes Patrick upon the technicians. One dies, the other (Teddy) manages to survive because Iris wakes up after rebooting. She talks to Patrick about Eli, which prompts him to electrocute himself. Teddy then refreshes Iris’ programming, allowing her to kill Josh.

In the end, we see Iris driving on the road, apparently free to live without a master.

Is Companion (2025) worth watching?

No. The first 30-40 minutes are actually interesting, but the last 30 minutes or so are insufferable. The film complicates itself for no reason, and the primary conflict hangs by a weak thread that’s too idiotically simple to believe.

In Conclusion:

Companion (2025) is a film with a tremendous amount of wasted potential. The makers definitely had an idea; they failed to develop it into an interesting story and experience.

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• Island of the Dying Goddess

What did you think of Companion (2025)? Let me know in the comments below.

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