WARNING: Major SPOILERS for Companion ahead.Drew Hancock’s sci-fi horror film Companion has left a lasting impression with its surprising and layered story, which has made for a thrilling movie experience. The story starts simply enough with a young woman and her boyfriend driving up to a friend’s cabin for a fun vacation, only for things to go horribly wrong after one of the characters is killed. Though one of Companion‘s trailers spoiled the film’s major twist that Iris is an android, the film still featured plenty of shocking twists that flipped its story on its head.
Specifically, after Iris runs away from Josh and his friends after they hold her hostage, Eli tells his boyfriend Patrick to go to sleep, revealing he is an Empathix robot companion as well. Though the second twist in 2025’s Companion comes somewhat early in the film, there are plenty of little details that hint at Patrick being a robot companion like Iris. The different ways that Patrick acts and talks and how his behavior reflects Iris turn out to have been ᴅᴇᴀᴅ giveaways of his robot status.
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The Story Of Patrick Meeting Eli
Patrick’s Meet-Cute Story In Companion Is A False Memory
After Iris and Josh arrive at Sergey’s house at the beginning of Companion, Patrick tells everyone about the night he first met Eli at a Halloween party. While it sounds like a sweet story, Josh later reveals to Iris that all Empathix companion robots are given false memories about how they met their owners when the latter selects their backstories. This means that Iris meeting Josh at a supermarket wasn’t technically true. Just as Patrick is revealed to be a robot not long afterward, so too is his “meet-cute” moment with Eli revealed to be a false memory.
However, Companion hints that Patrick’s memory of meeting Eli is fake while he is recounting it. Specifically, Patrick claims the moment he locked eyes with Eli at the party, something inside him “clicked into place,” as if there was some mechanism operating in his body. This very much foreshadows the fact that he’s a machine, with a metal body beneath his skin. Also, the fact that Patrick is telling the story instead of Eli implies that the latter doesn’t remember it and that he just picked this story from several other memory selections on a whim while setting up Patrick.
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Iris and Patrick Have Similar Views About Love
Iris and Patrick Think The Same Because Of Their Similar Programming
Also, since Companion is a riff on cheesy romantic comedies, the film has Iris and Patrick programmed to believe they had romantic, fairy tale moments when they first meet their owners. As a result, Patrick expressed his belief that meeting Eli was love at first sight, implying that he was designed to believe in some traditional, romantic fantasy. This is a stark contrast to the more lackluster realities in which they were just bought from a store and turned on.
The fact that Iris agrees with Patrick’s belief in love at first sight is another red flag that he is a robot like her. Her having the same belief implies that she and Patrick were both programmed to share these feelings as romantic android companions, believing they had similar meetings with their romantic partners that fit with their idealized vision of true love.
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Patrick Follows Eli’s Orders
Patrick Obeys Eli, No Matter What Happens In Companion
The robots in Companion are revealed to be programmed to follow their owner’s every order. Patrick displays this behavior with Eli as his ever-loyal partner during the film. For instance, when Iris first escapes from the house after being tied up by Josh, Patrick tries to tell Eli that she broke free while the two of them are sitting outside. However, Eli tells him to be quiet as he’s talking to someone on the phone, letting her go in a brief moment of humor.
Instead of interrupting Eli a second time, Patrick obeys his command and just sits there, waiting in silence. This action displays how Patrick is following his programming and doing what his owner wants him to do, just as Iris did with Josh. It is also worth noting that the way Patrick sits and stares off into space, rigid and statuesque, as Eli talks on the phone makes him look like a machine waiting for its master’s next command.
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Patrick Serves Food To Everyone
Patrick’s Actions In Companion Reflect His Subservient Programming
Since Iris was initially programmed to be the perfect partner for Josh in Companion, she looks and acts like a traditional homemaker, taking care of Josh’s every need and loving him as much as she can. Patrick exhibits similar behavior early on in the film, long before he is revealed to be a companion robot. When Patrick first appears in Companion, he is seen cooking food and pouring drinks for everyone at Sergey’s cabin.
At first glance, Patrick seems like a skilled chef who enjoys making food and sharing it with his pals. Once the context of this scene is revealed, Patrick appears less like a helpful friend and more like an ordinary servant whose job is to feed those in charge of him. This clue only becomes more explicit when Patrick is seen once again cooking and serving food for Josh after the latter alters his programming and brainwashes him.
Patrick’s skillful cooking thus becomes another symbol of his subservience in the movie. Even the electronic cork remover that Patrick uses to open bottles to prepare drinks for everyone seems to reflect his mechanical nature. The fact that the cork remover is meant to do the hard work for its user is very similar to how the other characters wait on Patrick to cook for them all, so they don’t have to do it themselves.
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Splitting The Cash Three Ways
Josh and Kat Don’t Consider Robots Like Patrick People
After Iris escapes from Sergey’s house, Josh and Kat reveal to Eli and Patrick that their plan in Companion was to have Iris murder Sergey so they could steal his money. Since Josh and Kat planned to use Eli and Patrick as witnesses of Iris “murdering” Sergey, they all argue about how they should split the money. Though Josh and Kat desire a three-way split, Eli is offended and argues for a four-way split instead, so Patrick can get an equal share of the cash.
Though Eli reveals Patrick to be a robot mere seconds into the argument, the dialogue leading up to this twist hints at the truth about Patrick. Since Josh and Kat don’t see robots like Iris as actual human beings, it’s no surprise that they only want to share the money three ways with Eli. Also, since Eli technically owns Patrick, it’s also understandable that Josh and Kat would only give money to the former, considering he and Patrick are a package deal.