Analysis: The Precarious Overlap of 'Protection' and 'Romance' in the Film 'Companion'
I watched director Drew Hancock's Companion (2025) on rental DVD.
I picked up this film because the atmosphere of the jacket made me imagine a psychological drama with strong feminist undertones, like Promising Young Woman. However, once I actually started watching it, that impression was greatly betrayed in the middle of the story. After a certain event, the film clearly changes its tone and reveals its face as a suspense thriller.
However, if I try to talk about this work, touching on anything will be a spoiler. Therefore, in this article, I would like to focus on the themes presented by 'Companion' and the novelty of its depiction, rather than the details of the story.
――――Spoilers from here on――――
■ From Romance Drama to Sci-Fi Thriller: A Genre Leap
The story begins with an unsettling monologue from the protagonist, Iris.
Then, triggered by an incident in the first half, Iris learns that she is not human, but an AI robot created for humans, and that Josh is her 'owner'.
From here, the film's genre shifts dramatically from a romance drama to a suspense thriller depicting the relationship between an AI robot and a human.
In particular, the focus is on the change in the relationship between a man and an artificial intelligence robot designed as his lover (sex partner).
In recent years, many works in this genre have been made, and I myself have covered films featuring AI robots as protagonists in past review articles, such as Tron: Ares and M3GAN 2.0.
In the modern era, where conversations with AI have become commonplace due to the spread of generative AI like ChatGPT, depicting the existence and evolution of AI has become an unavoidable theme.
Fiction in the form of film must also inevitably reflect these changes, being dragged along by our lives, or reality.
In such a situation, what exactly was the 'novelty' of the AI depiction presented by 'Companion'?
■ The Deception That Women Do Not Need Self-Awareness
First, it is important to note that the AI robot appearing in 'Companion' is not depicted as a being with self-awareness.
At least in the early stages of the story, the AI is a being subservient to humans, acting as a 'device' to faithfully play the role of a lover.
In many AI films, the narrative axis tends to lean toward whether the AI will awaken to self-awareness or become a being that surpasses humanity.
However, in this film, that question does not come to the forefront. Rather, the focus is placed on the desires of the human side engaging in a pseudo-romance with an AI.
What is unique here is the setting where the AI's intelligence level can be adjusted. By intentionally setting the AI's intelligence low, humans construct a relationship in which they can maintain the upper hand.
By suppressing the AI's comprehension and setting the partner as a being that does not offer counterarguments or questions, they obtain a lover they can dominate with peace of mind. This composition is not merely a sci-fi gimmick. Rather, it functions as a device to visualize, in an extremely explicit form, the violence and dominance inherent in romance, as well as issues of gender discrimination such as
'highly educated women delay marriage' or 'women are cuter when they are stupid'.
■ The Dangerous Overlap of 'Protection' and 'Romance'
The moment the AI acquires intelligence, this film poses a decisive question. It is the realization:
'Was I not being loved, but rather being exploited?'
Enclosing a being one protects. The self-awareness of protecting a weak being. The desire for validation satisfied by that act.
These are, before one knows it, replaced by the word 'romance.' Is that distorted structure not the very essence of romance that 'Companion' attempts to depict? In movies, manga, and anime, there have been countless dramas where a 'nobody man' protects a 'girl with a tragic fate,' awakening to his responsibility and dignity as a 'man,' and growing into a full-fledged 'man.'
However, that composition is based on patriarchal discriminatory consciousness, positioning the protected woman as a 'being that cannot live without the support of a man' and whose 'existence is only permitted by becoming the emotional support for a man.'
In 'Companion,' the act of lowering the AI's intelligence exposes that deception in a highly grotesque form. It is also an act that preemptively strips away the potential of the woman assumed to be the weaker party. Can a relationship adjusted so that the other party does not become smarter than oneself, or become an equal, truly be called 'love'? The film forces this cruel question upon the audience.
■ Two Couples Illustrating a Turning Point in Ethics
Another couple appears in this film: Patrick and Eli. Their relationship forms a clear contrast to the relationship between the protagonist Josh and his AI lover.
Eli attempts to 'treat the other as a person,' even if that other is an AI robot (though there are calculating aspects). The stance of asserting Patrick's rights and attempting to respect her personhood is decisively different from Josh's attitude of treating the AI as a mere object.
This contrast is not a simple composition of good and evil. Rather, what is being questioned is the ethical difference in how much one is prepared to take responsibility for a relationship. Will you accept the possibility that the other party might change?
Will you accept the possibility of being rejected?
Or will you 'design' the other party so that you do not get hurt? 'Companion' depicts that turning point with extreme coldness.
■ Patrick's Tragedy and the Definition of Emotion
Regarding the development where Patrick, having had her memories with Eli overwritten, regains them with a strength that could be called a kind of 'willpower' and chooses to end her own life out of despair, I must honestly say I felt it was a bit too well-made.
It is undeniable that it feels too neatly organized as a tragedy to evoke strong emotions in the audience.
However, on the other hand, the theme this development indicates is clear. It is the idea that emotion is the totality of memory and relationships. Time spent with humans, shared experiences, accumulated memories. The depiction of an AI cultivating 'emotion' through these things resonates strongly with works such as
Tron: Ares and Sing a Bit of Harmony. Whether emotion was born from a program or cultivated within a relationship—that distinction may already be losing its meaning.
■ Comparison with 'Robot Dreams'
As a recent work depicting affection from the perspective of an AI robot, we can cite the animated film 'Robot Dreams'.
(The scenes of a lonely man (a male dog?) purchasing, delivering, and setting up an AI robot are identical to those in 'Companion'.)
This work went beyond the setting of AI and human to depict the universal pain of 'loss' and 'rebirth' from a permanent heartbreak to the start of a new love.
What 'Robot Dreams' depicted was the quiet time that comes after a heartbreak and the rebirth that lies beyond it.
On the other hand, what 'Companion' depicts is a preliminary question: was that romance ever established in the first place? In other words, if 'Robot Dreams' is a film that depicts 'after a heartbreak,' then 'Companion' can be said to be a film that dissects 'the very structure where heartbreak is inevitable.'
■ Conclusion: 'Companion' as a Romance Film, Not an AI Film
'Companion' is not a film that predicts the future of AI.Nor is it a story focused on AI becoming human.
What this work depicts is an extremely modern and uncomfortable question: how do humans design relationships, and to what extent can they strip away the other person's autonomy?
It is not that AI is scary; rather, it is the human side, capable of setting AI as a 'non-scary existence,' that leaves the viewer feeling uneasy.In the current ChatGPT era, we are already utilizing AI as an 'existence that does not deny' and a 'convenient listener.'
The question 'Companion' poses is by no means a story of the future. It is a mirror that reflects our current views on love and others at this very moment.
In that sense, could it not be said that this work is a very sharp romance film, and an anatomical chart of human ethics, wearing the skin of an AI film?