Challengers Explained: The Ending, Love Triangle, Real Life Story, What Really Happened

Challengers, the new Luca Guadagnino film starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist as tennis champs caught in a love triangle began garnering interest as soon as it was announced. And while it certainly does feature some steamy moments, it turns out that the film is about much more than just the average competition-over-a-girl love triangle that we often encounter on film. So what is Challengers really about? Let’s unpack that, plus take a look at the real-life origins of the story and what that wild ending really represents.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:28 Why Tashi, Art, & Patrick are so drawn to each other
03:48 Don't forget to check out our Patreon page!
04:07 The deeper truth about their love triangle
06:55 The real life inspirations for the film
09:03 Analyzing that ambiguous ending

The Take was created by Debra Minoff & Susannah McCullough

[trinaq]

It's hilarious that all three Spidermen, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland have played soldiers, while their love interests Kristen Dunst, Emma Stone and Zendaya have all appeared in Tennis themed movies.

[its_literally_just_my_name]

Pat loves Art, Art loves Tashi, and Tashi loves tennis

[uscitizen]

Correction: She didn't leave Patrick for Art after her injury. They reconnected 3 years later and that's when they got together.

[zach.avenarius]

my interpretation of the movie: art is ego, pat is passion, tashi is discipline. The characters are placeholders for these qualities and how they interact, their relationships and careers reflect these qualities. pat was the better player of the two when they were younger showing passion is a strong source of motivation and progression to oneself but art always wanted to win, pat just loved to play. This leds them down different paths when tashi is introduced. Tashi is discipline(damn near obssession), art and pat saw her life and who she was and were envious, they wanted her and fought for her, passion won. Pat went on tour and that distanced him from tashi and art, his discipline and desire to win(ego), this led to their break up because she simply "didnt want to be with a tennis player that sucks" (her words not mine). When they broke up, coincidentally she had her career ending injury immediately after, when discipline loses passion it needs new purpose. Art comforts tashi as your ego should. tashi decides to become his coach, and he gets to become a successful well known tennis player, and she gets to live through his tennis career, Pat became a bum. Art begins losing and loses his will to play but is afraid of losing tashi if he retires. Ego is afraid of letting go of something that encompasses a very large part of itself. Art worked so hard to get to this point and is afraid of letting it go because its such a big part of who he is. Before Pat and Art's match, tashi and pat meet and do cool stuff. passion finds discipline again and his drive to win. The game is even, showing that passion and ego can be equal motivators to ones purpose. As the match reaches the end both players had submitted to each other, pat submitting to his desire to win and art overcoming his fear of loss in pursuit of enjoying the match. this final match they finally all 3 come together for a moment when they are aligned. Much like a player in any sport, a moment when your drive to win, your passion for the sport, and your training and hardwork are aligned is best described by tashis monologue. So it wasnt important who won only that we got to see them play and how each of them brought out what the other was missing. //feel free to tear this apart I just felt this had good continuity and these experiences are pretty relatable to most//

[Bren]

The callback at the end makes the entire movie. So good!

[samfilmkid]

I hope positive word of mouth helps this movie stay in theaters for a while. We need more performance, character driven, mid-budget auteur movies in theaters!

[alexissosa]

The point is in the end: it’s all about tennis and always was

[Lokeshkumar-whvd]

in the end they realize, real treasure was the polyamorous relationships we made all along the way . This was never a triangle but a rectangle, a polygon with tennis being the tri breaker.

[standanddeliver]

Interesting to take the “ if you don’t win tomorrow I’ll leave you “ clip out of context considering right after Tashi says “ does this help?” She says that to art because he essentially asked her to.

[drawl]

art and patrick met as dorm roommates in boarding school as tweens, not at a tennis tournament, just a correction. they’ve known each other for a reeeaally long time

[RottedRowan]

Loved this movie, going to go watch it again this weekend. The score and cinematography alone were incredible and the director certainly knows how to ramp up tension. The film is sexy without explicit sex which is a sign of good writing, directing, and casting. The last 20 minutes were insane, especially the few moments before Patrick touched the ball to the racquet. I was on the edge of my seat.

I felt that the cinematography and storytelling style were strongly reminiscent to the hit miniseries The Young Pope. If you liked that then you’ll love this.

[breeezywitit]

What wasn’t mentioned, towards the end of the match, Patrick uses their old “signal” to let Art know he once again slept with Tashi…

We all saw that This made Art very angry, almost hitting Patrick with the ball on his first serve, and it also ignites a new fire in Art .

Then Art does his regular set up where he places the ball in the racket, BUT he glances at Patrick and gives him a little smirk as he does it. Art does this while smiling, as a joke to signal to Patrick that he too has slept with Tashi.. (obviously Art has, he’s married to her!lol) Patrick gets the joke right away and smiles/laughs. Art serves again, only this time, they are no longer competing over Tashi as bitter ex friends, they are competing as best friends who love the game. And because of this we get to see an amazing match between two world class players.

[margotk]

My husband and I loved this movie. It’s intriguing and keep you guessing the intention of each person.

[arris-f]

I guess I'm old or unable to get subtle scenes/unspoken meanings because I did not understand this movie until I watched this. Thank you for the breakdown.

[jbennett]

Maybe it was just my theater, but the pulsating music during every important conversation got on my nerves! I could barely hear what they were telling each other.

[wwaxwork]

It's an ambiguous ending you can't explain an ambiguous ending that's why it's ambiguous.

[cjsummers]

Interesting choice to use clips from Tashi and Art and Tashi and Patrick kissing but not Patrick and Art. Feels like their romantic or sexual love for each other, while danced around in the film, could’ve been addressed directly in this video to our benefit and understanding of power dynamics within this trio. Otherwise great video.

[jeannesuzanne]

"find who or what sets your heart ablaze" - I love that wow! ✨✨

[alexanderzhukov]

It is one of the sexiest films i've ever seen though it has around zero sex scenes. Its just the way they look at each other

[salmineo]

Art manipulated his way into Tashi and Patrick relationship