Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Companion (2025)
While Companion‘s big twist was revealed early in its poster and trailers, the movie’s marketing didn’t need to divulge this mᴀssive revelation. While Companion’s ending is utterly unpredictable, the satirical sci-fi thriller by director Drew Hancock does give away one twist very early on. In her opening narration, which is included in many of the movie’s trailers and marketing materials, Sophie Thatcher’s Iris says the two most important days of her life were the days she met John and the day she killed him.
Thus, viewers already know that Thatcher’s Iris will outlive Jack Quaid’s nerdy, seemingly unᴀssuming boyfriend Josh. However, before Companion’s brutal deaths start to pile up, there is one other major twist that the movie needs to reveal. About a third of the way through Companion’s runtime, viewers discover that Iris isn’t actually a human being but rather a companion robot. This twist is cleverly telegraphed throughout the first act, but Companion’s marketing materials thoroughly spoiled the revelation months before the movie reached theaters.
Companion Revealed Iris Was A Robot In Its Trailers
Companion’s Marketing Didn’t Hide Iris’s True Nature
Companion’s trailers reveal that Iris is a robot, even though the movie itself keeps this a secret for some time. This understandably earned the ire of some reviewers who were otherwise fans of Companion, with British critic Mark Kermode going out of his way to avoid spoiling the reveal in his YouTube review. Companion’s earliest teaser trailer arguably hinted at Iris’s true nature with an extended sH๏τ of Thatcher’s character staring at her burning arm unable to move away from a candle’s flame, but the full-length trailer confirmed any lingering uncertainty.
In Companion’s second trailer, viewers can see Megan Suri’s supporting character Cat demands that Josh shut down Iris, resulting in her eyes going blank and the familiar sound of an electronic device powering off. While the trailer doesn’t go into the specifics of how Companion’s robots work, it is still impossible for viewers to miss the big twist. This is a shame since Companion’s тιԍнт script and its clever foreshadowing prove the movie could have succeeded without revealing this twist in its marketing.
Companion Ingeniously Foreshadowed Iris’s Robot Reveal
The Movie Itself Cleverly Hinted At This Big Twist
There is a ton of foreshadowing that hints at Iris’s true nature early on in Companion, and it feels pointless due to the trailer revealing the movie’s biggest twist. In the opening scene, Iris and Josh are both asleep in a self-driving car, hinting that Companion is set in the near future. Soon after, Iris makes Josh thank his car because she sees machines as conscious, but he doesn’t. Similarly, Josh nicknames Iris “Beep Boop” because she’s secretly a robot unbeknownst to herself. When Sergei meets Iris, he refers to her as “This beautiful creation” and, when Eli and Patrick recount a second dubious meet cute, it becomes clear that something is strange about the couples at this gathering. Sure enough, this sweet story turns out to be another programmed preset later in the movie, just like Companion’s opening scene was just Iris’s love link with Josh.
Cat says “Look Who I’m Talking To” to Iris after saying that she feels she has no agency in her romantic relationship.
Even Companion’s soundtrack choices get in on the fun. The song playing while Iris and Josh dance has a line about “Sitting at home at night playing with your toys,” which reflects Josh’s relationship with Iris. Soon after this, Cat says “Look Who I’m Talking To” to Iris after saying that she feels she has no agency in her romantic relationship with Sergei and is effectively a toy for him to dress and use as he pleases.
Why Companion’s Marketing Gave Away Its Iris Twist
Companion’s Studio May Have Wanted M3GAN’s Viral Popularity
The clues continue as Iris tells Josh what the weather is like with unerring scientific accuracy, sounding more like Alexa or Siri than a human, and Sergei tells Iris “This is what you’re made for” as he attempts to ᴀssault her. Companion’s many hints about Iris’s true nature are ingenious and a testament to the strength of the movie’s writing, so it is a shame to see all of this foreshadowing wasted by the movie’s marketing. M3GAN’s viral popularity might have compelled the studio to reveal the heroine’s robotic origins, or they may have wanted to cash in on cultural conversations around AI.
However, regardless of the motivation, Companion’s critical success proves that revealing the twist in the promotional materials wasn’t necessary. Companion looks beautiful, the movie has an incredibly buzzy cast, and its writing is sharp, funny, and unpredictable. Companion even seemed tense and unsettling from its earliest trailer without explicitly giving away its big twist, so Companion ruining its big twist to attract audiences hardly seems like a necessary move. To make matters worse, another recent horror hit’s success proves just how redundant revealing the twist truly was.
Companion’s Twist Reveal Was Unnecessary
Producer Zach Cregger’s Barbarian Didn’t Reveal Its Big Twist
Three years before Companion’s release, the movie’s producer, Zach Cregger, made his feature film debut with the horror comedy Barbarian. A former member of the sketch comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U Know, Cregger brought a barbed, blackly comedic style to the project and this was evident from its earliest trailer. A strangely simple, straightforward trailer, Barbarian’s first promo featured Georgina Campbell’s heroine arriving at an Air B+B and discovering it was double booked by Bill Skarsgard’s seemingly affable stranger.
The promotional materials that followed refused to divulge Barbarian’s big twist, and this ended up working in the movie’s favor. Not only was the modestly budgeted horror movie a huge success with critics, but Barbarian made its budget back 10 times over with a box office payday of over $44 million. This success was a big part of why Cregger was able to produce Companion, so it is ironic that 2025’s sci-fi thriller didn’t take the same minimalist approach to advertising.
Companion could have followed Barbarian’s lead and this would have resulted in a more surprising, unpredictable viewing experience for theatergoers.
Not only did Barbarian not give away its biggest twist, but the movie’s marketing didn’t even reveal anything that happened after its first act. Companion could have followed Barbarian‘s lead and this would have resulted in a more surprising, unpredictable viewing experience for theatergoers. The writing of Companion is strong enough to withstand trailer spoilers, but the movie would be a more enjoyable experience if the marketing hadn’t felt compelled to give away so much so early on.
