This article contains spoilers.
In a time when artificial intelligence is becoming exponentially more popular and profitable, new film “Companion” casts a reflection on human relationships in the age of advanced AI technology. Director Drew Hancock and cast members sat down with The Daily at a roundtable to discuss the movie’s intersection between robots, empathy and manipulation.
Hancock’s first feature film “Companion” imagines a not-so-distant future where people can purchase robot companions as a significant other.
“There are so many movies about AI, and I think everyone’s first instinct is to do a story of AI gone wrong,” Hancock said. “I thought, ‘What if it’s a story about AI gone right?’ As soon as I had that, it was like, let’s play with this and see where it will lead.”
Set in at a secluded mansion in the woods, the story follows three couples — Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid), Eli (Harvey Gullién) and Patrick (Lukas Gage), and Kat (Megan Suri) and Sergey (Rupert Friend) — on their weekend getaway.
The audience quickly learns that Iris and Josh’s relationship is not the charming, innocent love-at-first-sight relationship it first appears to be, but actually one driven by Josh’s human greed, selfishness and need for control.
At a moment of thriller suspense and horror gore, the audience — and Iris herself — finds out she is actually an AI robot. Iris, just as shocked and bewildered as the audience, struggles to grasp the reality of her not-so-real life.
Hancock said as he wrote the script, he realized the only relatable and sympathetic character in the story wasn’t a person at all; it was Iris.
“We’ve all found ourselves in positions where we’re in relationships where we feel like we are being programmed. For us, it’s a metaphor; for her, it’s literal,” Hancock said.
While “Companion” is a cautionary tale for the future of relationships with AI pervading nearly every aspect of life, when stripped to its core, Hancock says it’s a breakup story about escaping a “bad relationship with a bad person.”
Thatcher said she related deeply to Iris and hopes many other women do as well. According to her, the human characters have lost what it means to be human: having empathy and vulnerability.
“I think we’ve all been in relationships where you lose yourself and you’re just giving so much that you don’t know who you are,” Thatcher said. “I think that’s sad, but it’s very real.”
As the audience finds out Josh is a selfish, lonely and manipulative guy, Quaid says of his character, the true matter of the film emerges.
Hancock said he fears that with the growing reliance on technology and AI, society is losing its empathy.
“Looking at chat rooms and seeing people have no empathy for one another — this movie is taking that off the internet and putting it in your living room. … Unfortunately, there are Joshes in this world,” Hancock said.
Suri, who plays the only human woman in the movie, said the movie highlights what she called the “loneliness epidemic.”
People are more lonely than ever, and the reason, Suri explained, is that people are increasingly disconnected from other people and instead nourishing relationships with technology. She noted that there are real AI companions today.
“Are we trying to move further away from ourselves for something that’s not even real?” Suri said. “Is that more palatable than the sort of messiness and complicatedness that comes with interacting with other humans?”
Guillén, who played Eli, the loving human boyfriend of his AI companion Patrick, said human nature may be “scarier than any monster out there.”
But, he added a bit of hope for the future.
“I think it’s very important — whether you’re in a relationship with a partner or a friendship or companionship, anything that makes us connect to another human, how we treat each other will define how our future looks like,” Guillén said.
Hancock echoed this hope for the future.
He chose to end “Companion” on a positive note regarding AI and technology and said that AI is a tool, and that it can be used for good or bad — but it is ultimately up to humanity to decide.
“That is the point of the movie — it is up to us. It’s in our hands we can use it as a way to build empathy or as a way to build bitterness and entitlement,” Hancock said. “There are two futures, and I hope one wins out.”
“Companion” premiers in theaters Friday, January 31.
Email: ShannonTyler2025@u.northwestern.edu
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