Tashi Duncan: You don't know what tennis is.
Patrick Zweig: What is it?
Tashi Duncan: It's a relationship.
Patrick Zweig: What is it?
Tashi Duncan: It's a relationship.
Challengers is an American romantic sports drama film directed by Luca Guadagnino, written by Justin Kuritzkes, and scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Meeting the young tennis superstar Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) complicates the friendship between teenagers Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor). Years later, Tashi has become Art's coach and wife, and has helped him go from mediocre tennis player to prospective Grand Slam champion. But when Art faces off against Patrick in a Challenger event, the Donaldsons find that it's not so easy to escape the past.
The film was released on April 26, 2024.
Previews: Trailer
Not to be confused with the manga of the same name.
Challengers contains examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The present day scenes are set in 2019, with flashbacks from 2006 to 2007 when the trio were in college, as well as Tashi and Patrick's one-night stand in 2011.
- Anachronic Order: The film has a non-linear narrative, starting with the challenger match between Art and Patrick and then flashing back to various points in the past to show the circumstances that led up to the event and occasionally going back to the match in between these flashbacks.
- Anti-Hero: Tashi, Art, and Patrick are portrayed as being incredibly flawed people who all get up to manipulative and selfish acts, especially when it related to their complicated relationships with each other, but are ultimately sympathetic characters who care deeply about each other at the end of the day.
- Ambiguous Ending: The ending doesn't actually reveal who won, though this is likely lost on those unfamiliar with tennis. Further, do Patrick and Art mend their relationship, and which, if either, ends up with Tashi? Or do the three supposedly form a throuple relationship?
- Ambiguous Situation: Patrick and Art disagree about whether the mutual masturbation they engaged in at twelve (while talking about a girl they were both interested in) counts as them having hooked up with each other or not. It is also unclear whether Art is telling the truth when he claims that it only happened once, and that they stayed in separate beds and did not touch each other.
- Artistic License – Sports: Art and Patrick's final match is unusual, to say the least, and the last play depicted, with Art flying over the net and colliding with Patrick, likely would have lost Art the point, as outlined for ''Slate''. Also, this point on which the film ends would have only been the first of 7 points needed to break a tie in tennis.
- Auto Erotica: Tashi and Patrick have sex in Patrick's car the night before he's about to compete against Art in their challenger match.
- As Himself: Chris Fowler and Mary Joe Fernández as TV tennis commentators.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
- The movie ends with a moment of this between all three of the main characters. Art jumps up, smashes the ball across the net, and lands in Patrick's arms. The two men embrace each other while Tashi cheers enthusiastically from the sidelines, demonstrating that in spite of everything they've put each other through, these three characters all still care for each other.
- While it's ambiguous whether Tashi actually loves Art and she is, to an extent, with him so she can live her own tennis career vicariously through him, that doesn't mean she doesn't care about him. This is best shown when she tries her best to comfort him when he announces to her that he wants to retire, and her genuine remorse over having cheated on him by having sex with Patrick.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Tashi returns from hooking up with Patrick, it's suggested that Art may have left her after their argument as she finds his bed empty. In actuality, he's in the next room with Lily.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between all three of the main characters; especially pronounced between Tashi and Patrick.
- Betty and Veronica Switch: Tashi is the Archie who initially dates and eventually dumps confident bad boy Patrick (the Veronica) and then marries and has a child with reliable boy-next-door Art (the Betty). However, toward the end of the movie, Patrick displays a surprising degree of tenderness toward Tashi and ultimately toward Art as well. Meanwhile, Art's killer instincts are on full display during the final tennis match. (It is also revealed fairly early on in the movie that Art has at least as much of a manipulative and entitled streak as Patrick.)
- Both Sides Have a Point: Tashi and Patrick argue over the merits of going pro at a young age versus going to college and playing collegiate tennis before turning professional. Tashi desires to be more than a tennis player and points out college will allow her to learn other life skills than "hitting a ball with a racquet". Patrick believes that once a person has the opportunity to turn pro, they need to do so to capitalize on their talent while they can. Interestingly, both Tashi and Patrick wind up suffering the worst case scenario of their respective decisions: Tashi winds up suffering a Career-Ending Injury in college that torpedoes her professional career before it can start, while Patrick's lack of professional success (partly as a result of turning pro as an undertrained teenager) means he's been reduced to slumming it at every low-level pro tournament that will accept him because he has no life skills other than playing tennis.
- Bilingual Bonus: A sneakier example than most: Italian singer Patti Pravo's 1978 hit "Pensiero stupendo" can be heard briefly in a scene, its lyrics are explicitly about a menage à trois, and therefore very appropriate for the movie, given its premise. The director, Luca Guadagnino, is Italian.
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Zigzagged. It's not clear if either Art or Patrick are bisexual; they make out in the hotel room and talk about engaging in mutual masturbation once as tweens. They are, however, both attracted to Tashi, and the movie gets a lot of mileage out of the sexual chemistry and intensity between all three of them.
- Book Ends: While not literally occurring at the beginning of the movie, when we first see young Art and young Patrick, they jump into each other's arms to celebrate winning. At the end of the movie, Art jumps into Patrick's arms.
- Brick Joke:
- Art asks Patrick to throw the U.S. Open Junior finals for the sake of his grandmother. When Tashi offers her number to whoever wins the match, Patrick shoots back (partly in jest) that he hopes she dies of a stroke. Later in the film, we discover that that was, indeed, how Art's grandmother died.
- At the U.S. Open Junior women's final, Tashi easily defeats Anna Mueller. Several years later (after her knee injury forced her to leave the sport), she sees a sports segment touting the now-pro Mueller as the favorite to win that year's Wimbledon; the announcer wonders audibly if there is anyone who could challenge her.
- Chekhov's Gun: When Art and Patrick were training together in the past, Art asks Patrick to serve a tennis ball his way, centering the ball in the middle of the racket, if he had sex with Tashi; Patrick does so. At the Challengers final in New Rochelle, Patrick serves for the tiebreak by centering the ball in the middle of the racket, signalling to Art that he had sex with Tashi again the previous night.
- Company Cross References: Lily watches Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, another film produced by Pascal Pictures. Crosses over with Actor Allusion, as Tashi is played by Zendaya who was of course MJ in the MCU Spider-Man Trilogy.
- Contrived Coincidence:
- Tashi essentially chooses a challenger event for Art to compete in at random, and it just so happens that Patrick is also competing in the same tournament.
- Patrick goes on a date at a hotel bar, which happens to be in the same hotel where Tashi and Art are staying.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- Arguments and love scenes are treated with the same kind of back and forth cinematography and editing as the tennis matches, as well as featuring the same piece of intense musical score.
- Art and Patrick's relationship is underlined by sharing phallic food items like hot dogs, churros, eggs and bananas.
- Erotic Eating: Played for Laughs with the recurring motif of Patrick and Art eating phallic food together. At one point, in the middle of a contentious conversation, Patrick offers Art a bite of his churro, and Art willingly eats it from Patrick's hand.
- Famed In-Story: Tashi and Art are considered to be a power couple, with numerous celebrity endorsements and sponsorships backing them. During the challenger event, it's shown that Art has his own Estrogen Brigade fan club and he gets a lot more support than Patrick does from the audience at their match.
- Fanservice: The three-way kiss between beautiful Tashi, handsome Art, and hunky Patrick. Likewise multiple shots of beautiful tennis players of both sexes glistening from their sweat while on the courts, as well as Tashi wearing a see-through top in one scene and a long shot in the sauna focusing on a naked Patrick's bare ass.
- Freudian Trio: Art is the superego. While he occasionally acts out in anger (most notably when he finds out that Tashi and Patrick slept together the night before Challengers), he is the most restrained, level-headed, and cool of the Love Triangle. As a result, he's also the most washed-out — though he's much more successful than Patrick, multiple characters note that he's ready to be "done" with elite tennis and just wants to be a father and commentator. Patrick is the id. He's shown to be more Hot-Blooded, impulsive, and overtly arrogant, though also more sexual (it's implied that Tashi still prefers him to Art for this reason), more ambitious, and scrappier. Tashi is the ego. She's in the middle between Patrick and Art, and she's cool and levelheaded at times (most notably when she's watching Patrick and Art's match, and strategizing to get ahead in her career), but also passionate and sexual (such as during her screaming match with Patrick, and in having sex with him in his car).
- Get Out!: Tashi and Patrick have a fight right before the match in which she blows out her knee. She screams at him to leave when he finally comes to check on her at the first aid room, with an enraged Art, who was the first to rush to her side when he saw she was hurt, also screaming for him to get the fuck out.
- Hollywood Kiss: Subverted with the three-way kiss between Tashi, Art, and Patrick, which gets rather messy.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Art and Patrick's friendship is dripping to the teeth with homoeroticism. They've known each other since they were twelve, are very physically affectionate with each other, have a makeout session at Tashi's behest, share a conversation while nude in a sauna, and there's Running Gag of them eating phallic-shaped foods when they're together.
- If It's You, It's Okay: Shades of this between teenage Art and Patrick, who masturbated together at least once and share an intense kiss at Tashi's behest.
- Ivy League for Everyone: Patrick doesn't attend college, as he wants to go pro, while Art and Tashi both go to Stanford. While Patrick refers to Pepperdine at one point, he does so mockingly, which is a little Artistic Licence since the best schools for sports are not always the best for academics, and vice versa.
- Jaded Washout: Art's reason for wanting to retire is the fear of becoming this. He's realized that his increasing age and decreasing drive are starting to affect his tennis, and would rather retire while he's still considered a great player.
- Love Triangle: The focus of the film is a love triangle between a tennis prodigy turned coach and the two male players who fall in love with her.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Patrick's opponents walk around the locker room in the nude. Averted for Patrick himself by Scenery Censor.
- Man Hug: Art and Patrick excitedly jump into each other's arms after winning their doubles match as teenagers. At the end of the movie, the two men share a surprisingly tender hug across the net during their challenger match.
- Moment Killer: Art and Tashi share a kiss in an Applebee's parking lot...only to be jolted apart by the sharp, loud sound of an employee tossing garbarge into a dumpster.
- Non-Actor Vehicle: A supporting cast example: the umpire during Patrick and Art's New Rochelle match throughout the film is played by Darnell Appling, Zendaya's personal assistant.
- Parents as People: Tashi and Art both clearly love their daughter Lily very much. Both are also somewhat preoccupied with their own marital difficulties and Art's career, and leave a lot of the actual child-rearing duties to Lily's maternal grandmother.
- P.O.V. Cam: During the film-ending portion of the Challengers match between Art and Patrick, the camera sometimes switches POV between Art and Patrick, to at one time even becoming the POV of the ball.
- Product Placement: The film is about athletes who have their own endorsements:
- Tashi has a deal with Adidas, and prominently wears their merchandise in ads and on the court.
- Tashi and Art later have a partnership with Aston Martin, called Game Changer{s}.
- Tashi and Art are prominently shown using a MacBook to watch his match at the hotel.
- The tennis players wear a lot of branded clothing while playing on the court, most notably from Nike.
- Art and his team wear a lot of Uniqlo. note
- A famished, down-on-his-luck Patrick shares a bagel sandwich from Dunkin' Donuts with a worker at the challenger event.
- Art asks Tashi to be his coach at an Applebees in Cincinnati.
- Art and Tashi are shown staying in a suite at the New Rochelle's Four Seasons.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The umpire during the challenger event is tough but fair, giving Patrick and Art penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct and reminding them repeatedly that they're in a professional setting where they're expected to be cordial towards each other.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tashi gives one to Patrick after he asks her to be his coach to get him a comeback, something she considers disrespectful given their history together and with Art.
- Rejected Apology: Subverted, as it isn't exactly an apology, but the day before the challengers between the two, while in the sauna, Patrick tries to mend fences with Art and rekindle their friendship, yet Art harshly rejects this attempt as unknown to Patrick Art is well aware of the one night stand he and Tashi had in Atlanta circa 2011, during their engagement.
- Riddle for the Ages: Who actually won the challenger event, Art or Patrick? The umpire is never shown calling the match and their final play is framed in a way that's meant to be as deliberately ambiguous as possible, not to mention that it's technically impossible.
- A Storm Is Coming: Before the challengers between Art and Patrick, a massive storm sweeps New Rochelle, foreshadowing the massive changes that the main trio are to face in the next 24 hours.
- Scenery Dissonance: Much of the film's complicated relationship drama and cinematic flair takes place in decidedly unglamorous locations, such as Art and Tashi's Relationship Upgrade at an Applebee's in Cincinnati (which, in real life, is an extremely popular place for tennis players to go after matches) or the bulk of the film taking place at a low-level tennis competition in New Rochelle, sponsored by a local tire company.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Tashi and Patrick's relationship is highlighted by their constant violent arguments, in between make out/sex sessions. The night before the challengers, Tashi goes from literally spitting in his face in anger, to having sex in his car.
- Serious Business: Tennis is treated almost like a religion in the film, complete with hymns playing over some scenes, and Tashi comparing a tennis match to a romantic relationship between two people.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Art comes close. Aside from a few flickers of interest in Patrick, Tashi is the only person he ever demonstrates any romantic interest toward.
- Smug Snake: Art and Patrick both have their moments.
- Lampshaded when Art intentionally tries to derail Patrick and Tashi's relationship in college. Patrick realizes what Art is doing and calls him a snake in a half-amused, half-annoyed tone of voice.
- During their challenger match, Patrick very much enjoys letting Art know that he slept with Tashi the previous night.
- Both men in equal measure during their conversation in the sauna.
- Spiteful Spit: The night before the challengers match, Tashi meets Patrick in the middle of a big, windy storm. They have an argument and she spits in his face right before initiating sex with him.
- Threesome Subtext: The film is nominally about a love triangle — Art and Patrick are both into Tashi. But Art and Patrick are also longtime friends whose relationship remains rife with Homoerotic Subtext even after they fall out...
- Turn of the Millennium: Most of the flashbacks, excluding Tashi and Patrick's hookup in 2011, take place between 2006 and 2009.
- We Used to Be Friends: For many years, Art and Patrick were best friends, doubles partners, and boarding school roommates. They became estranged due to their romantic rivalry over Tashi. It's implied that they may be on their way to mending fences at the end of the movie.
