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As a Zendaya fan, I had been looking forward to watching Challengers because it was high on my must-watch movies of 2024 list. However, despite its critical praise and box-office performance, I didn’t quite know if a movie about tennis would be my thing. More importantly, I passionately hate love triangles as a story device. I still do, but Challengers offers an unusual one that doesn’t follow the standard love triangle route. It’s more complex.
This is a movie about a lot of things but the love triangle is its core. The story doesn’t have all its nuances without it. Tashi (Zendaya), Patrick (Josh O’Connor), and Art (Mike Faist) are shaped by it. It’s one of the parts of the film that fascinated me the most.
Warning: Challengers spoilers are ahead. Proceed with caution.
The Challengers Love Triangle Never Seemed Based In Love
Love triangles are often seen as two members in love with the same person. The object of affection must choose between them. Challengers never quite feels like a love story of two men in love with the same woman.
I believe that Art loves Tashi, but I don’t think she reciprocates the feeling. Plus, there is a scene where he says he loves her and she just acknowledges that he loves her. This scene shows Tashi’s coldness but it also implies that his appeal for her is that he’s so infatuated with her. Another scene shows Patrick saying that Tashi wants a member of her fan club. Art is that, Patrick is not.
Patrick and Tashi’s egos make them incapable of the traditional idea of love. I believe Patrick cares for Tashi and may love her in his way. Tashi may have some care for these men, or they just might be tools for her end goals. Patrick and Art are obsessed with Tashi but not necessarily in the traditional love way. Obsession is part of all of their identities. They are also dreamers and that’s another foundation for the love triangle.
Art’s love for Tashi makes him the most sympathetic of the trio. Plus, it shows he’s much more grounded in reality. He would be fine retiring and living happily in marital (not) bliss with Tashi. That would never be enough for her and Patrick.
That’s why he was willing to give up his tennis career. Patrick and Tashi would always chase that dream no matter how bad things became. That’s also why I believe Art is the only one of them that could fall in love. He’s the most human. He enjoys tennis but it never seemed like his entire world. His lower ambitions made Patrick and Tashi feel superior to him, despite their glaring problems and flaws.
She seems to only see his value when he wins and competes. Patrick enjoys beating him but doesn’t seemingly take him seriously as an opponent on the court and in this love triangle. He doesn’t even respect him enough to respect his marriage vows. However, that’s partly why the Challengers ending is so interesting.
Art gets the victory and both Tashi and Patrick are excited for him, but betrayal has been exposed. It’s victory on the court but might still be the end of both of these relationships, even if it ended in a hug. The hug may symbolize a reunion of Art and Patrick as competitors or teammates but it doesn’t necessarily mean all their conflict has been resolved. That match stands above all their petty feuding, it’s bigger than the love triangle in that moment.
It Was All About The Battle From The Start
Patrick and Art automatically make it a friendly competition between them for Tashi’s affection. They compete on the court for her number. Then they spend years competing for her. Patrick technically wins the first battle because he gets her number and they start dating. However, Art wins next when he’s there for her when she hurts her leg. Then Art maintains his lead for years with their marriage and child. However, Patrick gets a few victories along the way with their affair.
For most of their relationship with Tashi, it’s about them trying to one-up the other by winning her over. They both like her, but it seems more about what having her represents. They are the superior man because she chose them. It’s the same with their tennis matches. They prove they’re the better player by adding new trophies to their collection. Tashi in many ways is just another trophy for them. Eventually, they may realize it was never them who got to keep her as a victory. She controlled things the whole time by pushing both of them to perform better, as players and as her lovers.
Tennis Was All Of Their True Love In Challengers
Art never seemed in love with tennis the same way that Patrick and Tashi are. They love it enough to make it their whole identity. Who are they without the sport? Tashi especially seemed in love with it because of how her life and dreams were crushed by her injury. Patrick sacrificed a comfortable life just to chase the tennis dream. He let his pride go by doing whatever it takes to compete.
Their love of tennis is why they’re top-level performers. Art always seemed like the one who enjoyed tennis, but it didn’t let it rule his life until Tashi made it that way. However, the ending seems to show a rebirth of Art. He starts to fall in love with it again. It may become his true love and that’s why he can release any heartbreak surrounding the affair. I still can’t definitively say that the hug means the reunion of Patrick and Art on a personal level, but it’s definitely the reunion of them as tennis challengers.
It Wasn’t A Straight Forward Love Triangle
Challengers feels like a queer film. There is an underlying sexual tension between Patrick and Art. The film has them kiss but then not express blunt romantic affection, though there are a lot of not-so-subtle nods to it. We have the sauna scene that’s quite sexually charged, especially during the moment when Patrick asks Art whether he misses their relationship. He clearly means friendship but there is also a hint of something else.
Josh O’Connor described the characters as “fluid,” and that seems particularly to be a good label for Patrick. We see Patrick and Art accidentally kissing and that’s the only direct queer moment here. However, we see a scene with Patrick swiping through women and then one man pops up. You usually only see matches on dating apps of whatever gender preference you put. Therefore, this moment implies that Patrick is at least interested in men as well as women.
Plus, Patrick also has moments where he looks at Art like he wants to confess his undying love for him. I believe the love triangle isn’t just both men being in love with Tashi. There is enough there to read it as them being in love with each other, or at least Patrick also being in love with Art. Some could even read the ending as them picking each other over Tashi. I personally didn’t read the ending that way, but there is an argument that works for that choice.
Art’s Final Win Also Ties Into The Love Triangle
So, I read the ending as the men finally realizing that their petty squabble over Tashi isn’t what’s important. The important thing is their love for tennis. Patrick re-unleashes Art’s drive to win by sleeping with his wife. They then have this passionate match. Art wins and they hug while Tashi loves every moment of it.
Tashi has constantly been a force to drive them apart but also to push themselves harder. Her purpose in their life is to make them compete, whether on or off the court. Some may think that they will live in throuple bliss and now make it work as a threesome. I didn’t see that possibility. Because of who Tashi is, they can never share her. They will always compete for her, but this match may have been what was needed to end the battle over her. They both lost her, because she would never really love either of them. However, they won this victory and maybe each other again.