Does Knowing The Companion Twist Ahead Of Time Hurt The Movie? It's Complicated
Major spoilers for "Companion" follow.
In October for last year, the first teaser trailer for "Companion" arrived and immediately caught the attention of genre fans. With the risk of dipping into hyperbole, I want to say it's one of the best teaser trailers in recent memory. It hints at something interesting while not giving too much away. As the teaser begins, we see a man, played by "The Boys" star Jack Quaid, and a woman, played by "Yellowjackets" actor Sophie Thatcher, sitting at a dining room table while The Flamingos sing "I Only Have Eyes for You" on the soundtrack. It looks like a romantic evening — a fact underlined by the text-on-screen telling us this is a new movie from "The studio that brought you 'The Notebook.'"
Ah, but then there's a twist! We suddenly see that Thatcher's character is handcuffed to the chair she's sitting in, and she looks disturbed. From there, the teaser goes down tantalizing, dark avenues, showing us bursts of violence while promising us that folks involved with the delightfully twisted horror movie "Barbarian" had a hand in this title. The teaser ends with Thatcher's character holding her hand above the open flame of a candle. Her hand then catches fire, all while she silently looks on with wide, tearful eyes. Like I said: great teaser. We know this is some sort of wild and crazy horror movie and we know it has something to do with romance/relationships, but beyond that, the plot remains mysterious. The official synopsis provides no further details, stating only "You are cordially invited to experience a new kind of love story."
I don't know about you, but after this teaser, I was sold on "Companion." I didn't need to know anything more, I was already excited to see it. But then a curious thing happened. Cut to 2025: with the release date for "Companion" approaching, Warner Bros. dropped a full trailer. And unlike the teaser, this trailer went ahead and let the cat out of the bag: Thatcher's character, named Iris, isn't human. She's a robot. More specifically, she's a "sexbot" that has been hacked by her owner, played by Quaid. See for yourself.
Surprise! Iris is a robot!
The spoiler-heavy trailer for "Companion" dropped the same day I was set to screen the film, and I unfortunately was unable to avoid learning the truth about Iris. However, I made sure to keep this detail a secret from my girlfriend, who watched the film with me. As a result of this, I was able to experience the film two ways: both with my foreknowledge at the ready, and my girlfriend's total surprise when the film reveals that Iris is secretly a robot. Now, I'm not in marketing. I won't pretend to understand how the minds of publicity people work — that's not my gig. Still, I have to wonder: why did the folks at WB think it was a good idea to reveal such a huge twist?
"Companion" waits a bit before revealing that Iris is a robot. Iris herself doesn't know the truth, and as the film begins, she narrates how she met the love of her life, her boyfriend Josh. After witnessing their meet-cute via flashback, "Companion" begins its main storyline which sees Iris and Josh attending a weekend getaway with some of Josh's friends: Kat (Megan Suri), who clearly does not like Iris for some reason (Kat tells Iris she feels uncomfortable around her because it reminds her she can be "replaced," a bit of info Iris doesn't understand, because she has yet to learn that she's a robot); Kat's vaguely threatening Russian boyfriend Sergey (Rupert Friend); and pleasant couple Eli (Harvey Guillén) and Patrick (Lukas Gage).
After a drunken night of partying, the morning arrives, and Iris heads to the lakefront that surrounds the property, which is owned by Sergey. Sergey suddenly appears and starts fondling Iris, much to her horror. From here, the scene cuts to inside the house, where the rest of the gang is hanging out. Their conversation is cut short when they see, with horror, Iris has suddenly entered and she's drenched in blood. She explains she had no choice: Sergey was trying to assault her, and she stabbed him to death with a knife she mysteriously had in her pocket. Everyone starts freaking out, and then, the first of several twists presents itself: Josh tells Iris to shut herself down. Her eyes suddenly turn completely white. She's not human: she's a robot, and Josh has just shut her off with a vocal command.
Companion drops some early clues about Iris' true nature
This is a great twist, and to be fair, "Companion" has plenty of more twists up its sleeve as the film continues, and these twists have not been spoiled by the trailer. And yet, the question remains: why did the folks involved with "Companion" feel the need to reveal that Iris was a robot before the film even came out? "Companion" is produced by Zach Cregger, the filmmaker behind the previously-mentioned "Barbarian." That was another film with plenty of twists, and the trailers managed to avoid giving almost all of them away. For instance: the inciting incident of that film finds a woman named Tess (Georgina Campbell) showing up at an AirBNB to discover it's already occupied by someone else, a guy named Keith, played by Count Orlok himself, Bill Skarsgård. Immediately, tension arises: should Tess enter the house with this strange man? What if he's a danger to her? Spoiler alert: Tess does enter the house, and eventually we learn that Keith is utterly harmless. Unfortunately, there's an monstrous killer lurking in the basement of the house, and she ends up smashing Keith's skull in and taking Tess prisoner. But none of this is in the trailer for "Barbarian," and that shock helped make that movie even better. The "Companion" trailer revealing Iris is a love-bot is tantamount to a teaser for "Barbarian" revealing that Keith is innocent and gets his skull crushed in the first act of the film.
However, does knowing the "Companion" twist about Iris hurt the film? I guess that depends on the viewer. When my girlfriend learned that the trailer gives away Iris' robotic nature after the fact, she stated that she felt she wouldn't have enjoyed the film as much if she had this knowledge. But I had seen the trailer, and you know what? I ended up loving "Companion" anyway (you can read my review right here). Ultimately, I'm kind of split down the middle here. On one hand, I think I would've liked the movie even more if I hadn't known the twist ahead of time. On the other hand, I think the film still works great even if you know the twist.
In fact, knowing the twist actually adds some fun to the early scenes of the film. In the opening scenes, writer-director Drew Hancock drops some fun little clues about Iris. After the meet-cute flashback, Iris is introduced in the passenger seat of Josh's car, seemingly asleep. "Iris, wake up," Josh says, which rouses Iris. Now, if you didn't know the twist, you could read this scene in a matter-of-fact way: Iris was asleep, and hearing Josh's voice woke her up. However, once you know that Iris is a robot in Josh's command, you realize that he was literally bringing her online by giving her an order. Later, Iris and Josh are shown in bed together. Iris keeps asking Josh questions, to which Josh, sounding annoyed, says: "Iris, go to sleep." Again: if you don't know Iris is a bot, you interpret this scene as Josh being slightly rude to his girlfriend. However, knowing what Iris is makes the scene play differently: after Josh says "Iris, go to sleep," Iris stops talking — because Josh has literally shut her down for the night. The next day, Josh asks Iris what the weather is, and she dutifully gives him the info like she's reading a weather report. "That never gets old," Josh says, laughing. We could read this scene as if we're witnessing a playful in-joke between a couple. But if you know the twist, you realize that Josh is asking for the weather the way someone asks the same question of their Amazon Alexa device.
Warner Bros. should've kept the Companion twist a secret, but knowing it doesn't ruin the film
Now, I'm not saying that you should go into "Companion" knowing the twist ahead of time. If you managed to avoid it before seeing the movie, that's great! Those hints I mentioned above will actually make the film more fun upon rewatch: you'll pick up on them in ways you didn't when you first saw the film. But it's also important to remember that knowing a spoiler ahead of time isn't the end of the world. If it was, rewatching movies would be almost impossible. "The Sixth Sense" has one of the most famous twist endings of all time, and at this point, everyone knows it. And yet, whenever I revisit the film — which I tend to do yearly, around Halloween season — knowing the truth about Bruce Willis' character doesn't make me like the film any less.
Still, there's a part of me that remains slightly bothered that the team behind "Companion" spilled the beans before most people had a chance to see the flick — it would've been nice to be completely surprised. But perhaps they reasoned the twist would get out sooner or later and it was best to get out ahead of it. Perhaps this is exactly what the filmmakers had planned all along. Ultimately, I don't think knowing the "Companion" twist about Iris hurts the film, but if you managed to avoid it, consider yourself lucky.
A couple of /Film editors spoke about the movie and presented an interview with its director and stars on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast:
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"Companion" is now playing in theaters.