Companion ★★★
ARTIFICIAL Intelligence has been a Hollywood villain since the ‘60s when Stanley Kubrick gave us Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Since then, we’ve had hundreds of films, from The Terminator to the most recent Mission Impossible instalment, telling us how bad things can get when technology turns on us.
In recent years the increasing promotion of AI use in the workplace and home has further bolstered the sub-genre, the latest example being 2025’s Companion.
This is one of those occasions where you need to approach a review carefully due to the spoilers involved.
If you prefer to know as little as possible, I’d suggest if you enjoy sci-fi thrillers set in a contemporary, Earth-based setting with a darkly comic edge then this should provide what you need.
If you prefer to know a little more, read on.
***SPOILER WARNING***
I don’t like the film’s opening scene. It suggests that it doesn’t matter if you know what happens in the end, because the makers have been so clever and entertaining in getting there.
That’s spoiler number one – in the first minute of the film.
Even if you haven’t seen the trailer, you are likely to pick up on the second spoiler before it’s revealed about 20-odd minutes into the film.
Iris, played by Sophie Thatcher, and Josh (Jack Quaid) are a couple on a weekend getaway with friends at a remote, lake-side cabin. For some reason, not yet explained, Josh’s friends don’t particularly like Iris.
One of those friends, Kat, has a new, rich boyfriend who owns the cabin. Sergey, played poorly by Rupert Friend, is an arrogant boor who tries to physically force himself on Iris when they are alone.
Iris kills him and is then revealed to be an AI robot companion.
From here you’ll have to watch the film which largely manages to tell the rest of its story in an entertaining manner while keeping a few smaller surprises up its sleeve.
It also comments on some other social issues, such as the treatment of women, but not in a way that detracts from the more thrilling elements.
Apart from Friend, the rest of the cast are fine with Thatcher being the stand-out.
Watched at the cinema.