‘Companion’ and Timing the Twist
Companion is a fun story involving a sex robot that makes two pretty smart storytelling choices.
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In many ways the entire history of humanity has been a complicated drive to invent lifelike, reliable sex robots1. Don’t believe me? Considering how the porn industry is usually on the cutting edge of technology, I have little doubt that any breakthroughs in robotics and artificial intelligence that allow the creation of realistic robots that people can have sex with will be some of the final advances the human race achieves before it dies out because everyone is busy humping their sex robots instead of having babies2.
Which brings us to Companion, a film about a sex robot named Iris (Sophie Thatcher), though the film is a little cagey about this in the very beginning (sometimes you have to pretend to have not seen any of a movie’s promotion and marketing to get a sense of how well it’s written). We initially meet Iris as she dreams about the first time she met Josh (Jack Quaid), a meet-cute involving him being a clumsy but charming doofus in the grocery store3. When she wakes up, she’s in the car with Josh, driving to visit his friends Kat (Megan Suri) and Kat’s sketchy-looking Russian boyfriend Sergey (Rupert Friend) along with Josh’s other friend Eli (Harvey Guillén) and his boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage) at Sergey’s extremely remote house.
While there are clues that Iris isn’t just Josh’s extremely obedient girlfriend, it takes a beat to get to the actual reveal that she’s an “an emotional support robot that fucks4.” But that’s not really the twist, even though the story treats it like a mild twist in the very beginning. The real twist is that Josh has jailbroken Iris’s programming so she can be manipulated into murdering Sergey so he and Kat can steal the $12 million in cash in his safe5. And what’s great is that this twist comes so early in the story, instead of being dripped out bit by bit to keep us in suspense.
Did You Jailbreak Your Sexbot?
When you make a film about a sex robot, it’s natural for folks to assume that having the sex with the robot is the main point6. Sure, you might assume the sex robot might be tampered with or might suffer some kind of malfunction and transform into a murder robot, but the robot sex is usually a big part of it. Companion relegates the robot sex to a background joke, referring to it a few times with a shrug, as if to say of course Josh is having sex with a robot that looks like Sophie Thatcher.
That makes it seem like the twist will be centered on the reveal that Iris is, in fact, a robot, either to the audience or to the other characters—but that twist is given to Eli and Patrick, the latter being revealed to also be a sex robot about halfway through the story7. Instead, the real twist of the story is that Iris is being manipulated to murder Sergey, and at that point she really stops being a sex robot and becomes a much more interesting character: A robot striving for autonomy. The bulk of the second half of the film is taken up by Iris’s attempts to seize control of her life and escape from Josh, Kat, and Eli (who are actively trying to murder her to cover up their crimes)8.
This is a lot more interesting than an insane sex robot that goes on a killing spree. Although the movie is disinterested in the larger questions around Iris’s sentience, they’re buried in there, if you squint. And watching Iris hack herself to win the day is a lot more fun than watching a sex robot in tattered lingerie murdering people, if you ask me9.
Go To Sleep, Josh
The other very smart thing Companion does is kind of subtle: It uses Iris’s memory of her meet-cute with Josh against the audience.
Just like Iris, this is our first exposure to Josh, and it influences our perception of the character throughout the film. This means we continue to think of Josh as an okay guy even when he’s done some pretty awful things—that memory of him smiling and being charming in the supermarket infects our thoughts and keeps us on his side for a while, just as it kept Iris artificially enamored with a mediocre asshole who is renting a sex robot10.
We later learn that this is a fake memory implanted in Iris to help focus her emotionally on Josh (or whoever is renting her at that moment), but that doesn’t matter. It works because it puts the audience right there with Iris, emotionally, slowly realizing that the guy we thought was a second protagonist is actually the villain. It’s a terrific little trick and it works a charm11. When Josh later tries to sweet talk Iris, claiming to still love her, both the audience and Iris briefly flash to that scene and the endearing puppy-dog smile Josh delivers, and for that moment we want to believe.
If I found out I started off as some sort of semi-sentient sex robot, my inner 13-year-old would be delighted, and I would insist on being introduced as JEFF SOMERS, FORMER SEX ROBOT everywhere I went12. I would have it written into contracts. And at least once a day I’d work it into conversation, e.g., well, what do I know, I’m just a dude who’s so objectively hot he started off his existence as a frickin’ sex robot.
NEXT WEEK: Conclave is just a thriller in funny robes.
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And to be fair the whole “lifelike” part is probably a sliding scale, much to the horror of everyone.
The upside? Walking around outside will be a lot more pleasant without all those people. At least until the wildlife creeps back in and then you’re running in terror from wolves every time you leave the house.
I wonder if Jack Quaid is worried about how well he plays mediocre men.
This is unreservedly a terrific line.
This is a weird complaint, but the film makes it clear we’re living five minutes in the future what with all the sex robots and self-driving cars, yet people are still stealing bricks of cash? I’m an extremely 20th-century man, but I haven’t used cash since 2015.
Thankfully, we’re spared a montage of Jack Quaid banging Sophie Thatcher for three months straight, guzzling Gatorade and growing an increasingly alarming beard.
There’s a story in here about a world where everyone you meet turns out to be a sex robot. I’m on it.
I’d be interested to know the EULA that comes with Iris. If you murder her and set her on fire and all that, is it covered by the warranty?
Although a sex robot in tattered lingerie murdering people is not not interesting.
I mean, honestly, when it comes to sex robots renting does make more sense than buying. This way when they inevitably turn murderous you can just swap in a fresh one. It’s just science, people.
Part of this is Jack Quaid, who exhibits so much Aw Shucks Energy it’s difficult to hate him even when he’s being a total dick. This is also my superpower, or it was until time robbed me of my youth and turned me into some sort of troll.
Is Jeff Somers: Former Sex Robot the title of my memoir? I could only wish to be so cool.