"I'm taking such good care of my little white boys."
— Tashi Duncan
Challengers is an American romantic sports drama film directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes.
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 Grand Slam champion. But when he faces off against Patrick in a Challenger event, the Donaldsons find that it's not so easy to escape the past.
The film is set to release on April 26, 2024.
Previews: Trailer
Not to be confused with the manga of the same name.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Bi:
- Tashi, Art, and Patrick have a three-way kiss in the hotel room, before Tashi pulls back and the boys continue making out with each other.
- As an adult, Patrick swipes right on several women and one man on Tinder, although it's worth mentioning in this scene Patrick is living out of his car and only looking for a date so he has somewhere to spend the night.
- Patrick is also perfectly comfortable discussing the time he and Art masturbated together in front of Tashi, who he is interested in dating. (Art is much less comfortable reminiscing about the mutual masturbation.)
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.)
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Patrick is said to be well endowed in this department, which he uses to try to intimidate Art.
- 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.
- Career-Ending Injury: When playing tennis at Stanford, Tashi blows out her knee on the court, an injury from which her career never recovers; she has to pivot to coaching instead.
- 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.
- 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, 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.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: All three of the main characters have different hair styles between the past and the present.
- Tashi wore her hair long when she was younger, usually keeping it in a long braid when playing tennis. In the present, she has her hair cut into a bob.
- Art's hair goes from longish and curly to neater and clean-cut.
- Patrick's hair is also shorter in the present, although still somewhat unruly.
- Guy on Guy Is Hot: Teenage Tashi certainly seems to think so. While hanging out with Art and Patrick in their hotel room, she asks if the boys ever hooked up with each other, and seems intrigued by the story of a sexual experience they had together when they were younger. She then sits on the bed, kisses both of them, and coaxes the two of them to kiss each other. When they do, she lies back on the bed with a satisfied smirk and enjoys the view.
- Hollywood Kiss: subverted with the three-way kiss between Tashi, Art, and Patrick, which gets rather messy.
- If It's You, It's Okay: Shades of this between teenage Art and Patrick.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- "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.
- Riches to Rags: Patrick is said to come from a very wealthy family, but in the present day, he's sleeping in his car and relying on the kindness of strangers. Tashi implies that he can always go back to his family for money or a job, however, and suggests that his poverty is performative on some level.
- Smug Snake: Art and Patrick both have their moments.
- 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.
