Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Companion.Director Drew Hancock’s Companion has introduced another iconic cinematic android in Iris. Played by Sophie Thatcher, Companion‘s main character finds herself in the fight of her life after realizing she is a robot and reluctantly killing a man during her romantic getaway with her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid). Though Iris begins the film with limited abilities, she gains a remarkable amount of power that makes her a hard robot to kill.

The robots in Companion are very similar to the ones seen in several other popular films. Iris’ powers are understandably restricted, as this adds greater tension to her story of survival. Nevertheless, 2025’s Companion depicts Iris as an intelligent, creative, and dangerous machine when the shackles in her programming are taken down. While she isn’t as strong as some other well-known movie androids, her abilities have her rank highly among them.

5

The T-800 In Terminator (1984

Played By Arnold Schwarzenegger

Iris and the T-800 are two incredibly advanced androids with drastically different functions. Because Iris is designed purely to simulate a human being, she is programmed to experience pain whenever her body is damaged. She can still endure having her hand burned without pulling it back when Josh tortures her in Companion. Meanwhile, the T-800 is simply programmed to hunt and kill, so it doesn’t feel pain. It can be damaged but will continue to fight even when it loses its skin and other parts of its body.

Moreover, the T-800 is equipped with an advanced targeting system to help it shoot down its enemies. Given its long-range vision, as well as night vision, the Terminator can easily hunt down its target in almost any environment, making it the perfect soldier. Nevertheless, Iris proves herself a resourceful figure, sharing the T-800’s ability to alter her vocal pitch and mimic someone else’s voice, which she uses to lure Josh out and nearly shoot him.

4

K In Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Played By Ryan Gosling

As a Nexus-9 replicant, K is programmed to obey the commands of human beings in Blade Runner 2049, similar to how Iris’ programming forces her to obey the orders given by her owner in Companion. Like K, Iris is also given false memories by her owner from a selection of “meet-cute” outlines to determine her backstory. While Iris is initially programmed not to harm others, K is portrayed as a formidable fighter from the get-go, willing to kill other replicants as part of his job as a Blade Runner.

Additionally, like other replicants, K is imbued with super strength and endurance, allowing him to take several punches to the face and run through a wall without any difficulty. In contrast, Iris has a limited amount of strength, as she struggles to break open a car window. Since Iris is programmed to mimic human beings, her fake memories and ordinary level of strength make it harder to distinguish her from a human than a replicant like K.

3

Ava In Ex Machina (2014)

Played By Alicia Vikander

Companion and Ex Machina are both sci-fi films with similar stories about sentient androids, and many comparisons have been drawn between Iris and Alicia Vikander’s robot character, Ava. While Iris gains an extraordinary amount of knowledge in her film, a technician in Companion reveals that the maximum amount of intelligence she can have is that of an “Ivy League student.” Ava, on the other hand, seems to have access to all the information available on the internet.

Nevertheless, once Iris gains access to her full intelligence, she becomes a skilled tactician able to escape and overpower her enemies. Similar to Iris, Ava can analyze Caleb and use her knowledge and Sєxuality to manipulate him to help her escape her prison. On top of that, in her attempt to break out of Nathan’s house, Ava uses her ability to shut down its security system with a thought, making her more powerful than Iris.

2

M3GAN In M3GAN (2022)

Played By Amie Donald & Voiced By Jenna Davis

Iris also has a similar story to the тιтular android from the film M3GAN. Both of them were programmed to serve as emotional support companions to their owners, only to turn against and kill them. However, while Iris gains full self-control and accesses several abilities in Companion, M3GAN develops a greater amount of power throughout her respective film all by herself.

M3GAN gains the power to control any kind of digital technology with a thought, making her an almost godlike force to be reckoned with. Likewise, M3GAN displays the ability to transfer her consciousness to any other machine, allowing her to escape death at the end of her first film. Though Iris is able to survive a gunsH๏τ to the head, given her CPU is located in her stomach, her consciousness is limited to her android body.

1

Andy In Alien: Romulus (2024)

Played By David Jonsson

Iris and Andy start their respective films as timid but caring androids who want nothing more than to love and take care of their owners. However, Andy also experiences a drastic personality change when he uploads a Weyland-Yutani chip into his system. Both androids gain more knowledge that helps them survive in their respective predicaments, with Andy learning more about the Xenomorphs and the ship they’re on.

While Iris’ upgrade helps her escape from her life of servitude, Andy’s turns him into another sadistic but calculating machine with the sole purpose of serving Weyland-Yutani, ironically making him more restricted than he was before. Even though Iris gains the ability to kill other humans, she retains traces of her former self, as she is reluctant to shoot Josh at the end of Companion, despite everything he did to her.