The Big Picture
- The soundtrack of
Challengers
, mixing classical and EDM music, mirrors the characters’ clashing personalities and inner turmoil. - The music creates anxiety and tension, enhancing non-verbal communication and adding depth to pivotal moments in the film.
- Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s techno soundtrack invites the audience to feel the rhythm of the tennis match, mirroring the chaotic yet steady nature of relationships.
Challengers, directed by Luca Guadagnino, is a thrilling tale of jealousy, sex, and tennis that follows Josh O’Connor’s Patrick and Mike Faist’s Art, best friends turned bitter rivals, as they battle on and off the court for the attention of Zendaya‘s Tashi. Challengers has received glowing reviews, with Zendaya being praised for her role as the manipulative and obsessive tennis protégé who can no longer play after an injury at university. However, the soundtrack, created by Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross — the Oscar-winning minds behind soundtracks such as The Social Network — has also emerged as a fascinating talking point for audiences. The heavy EDM music featured seems more suited for your local nightclub, while the classical music Reznor and Ross also include on the soundtrack is being called “the ‘eye’ of an otherwise EDM ‘storm.'”
Guadagnino told Reznor and Ross the keywords for the soundtrack were “unending homoerotic desire.” That last word — desire — and the madness it induces, is where the soundtrack to Challengers hits home. In moments where Tashi, Art, or Patrick are merely sitting still at a tennis match, the heart-thumping, heavy bass EDM blares. It creates a dreadful anxiety, forcing the audience to join in the mania, which is perfect for Challengers.
Challengers
Follows three players who knew each other when they were teenagers as they compete in a tennis tournament to be the world-famous grand slam winner, and reignite old rivalries on and off the court.
- Release Date
- April 26, 2024
- Cast
- Zendaya , Josh O’Connor , Mike Faist
Why Reznor and Ross Mixed Classical and EDM Music in ‘Challengers’
Typically, a film soundtrack is expected to stick to a similar style or vibe of music throughout, perhaps occasionally switching genres but never outlandishly so. The soundtrack is also expected to be integrated seamlessly into scenes, sometimes so that audiences won’t even notice the music creeping up. Reznor and Ross looked at these expectations and threw them out of the window. In Challengers, the music is sometimes classical, providing a beautiful juxtaposition of a character’s environment, such as when Tashi and Patrick stare at each other during a storm. Other times, Reznor and Ross’ EDM tracks will blare during a tennis match, where silence is typically demanded. It can be an upsetting and garish mixture, but, sometimes, upsetting your audience is the best way to make them aware of the character’s inner turmoil.
Obviously, classical and EDM music do not belong together. One would not expect to walk into a nightclub and hear Mozart. But, that is exactly why the mishmash of styles works in Challengers — they clash the same way the characters do. Patrick is a rich kid who cannot take tennis seriously, Art is a hopeless romantic, and Tashi is a stone-cold obsessive who only thinks of her sport. These three are complete opposites to each other, yet as Luca Guadagnino shows in the end, they bring out the best in each other the same way the classical and EDM tracks do on the Challengers soundtrack.
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The ‘Challengers’ Soundtrack Lets Tashi, Patrick, and Art Silently Communicate
Justin Kuritzkes recently explained that, when writing Challengers, he found non-verbal communication on the tennis court fascinating. It’s that fascination that led him to write the moment in the final scene where Patrick signals, through an imitation of Art’s serve, that he had slept with Tashi the night before. However, it is the moment before Patrick’s serve that the audience is informed that a sort of madness is taking hold of Patrick, and it comes courtesy of the EDM music that unnaturally blares as Patrick silently stares at Tashi, while Art looks across the court.
The music allows the look Patrick, Tashi, and Art share to invoke a great anxiety within the audience, who now already know what Patrick is going to do well before he does it. The heart-thumping beat tells the audience not just that a significant event is about to take place, but that it will not be a pleasant one for Art or Tashi. The juxtaposition of the violent music and the serene tennis court is almost an insult to the very nature of tennis. The soundtrack itself ramps up the stakes. Throughout Challengers, the audience has fallen in love with tennis. Now it seems like the music, combined with Patrick’s actions, is going to rip apart the fabric of the game. It makes the audience want to scream at the movie itself to stop the music and continue the match. It’s a brilliant moment of storytelling that ramps up the tension in the scene, and the build-up to it is not through words or actions, but through music.
The EDM music never gives the audience the release they desire. It only continues to ratchet up and up until the final moment of the film where Tashi roars her approval after Art and Patrick share a brilliant deciding point. The music plays throughout this point, thumping the same beat as the ball as it is whacked backwards and forwards, Tashi’s head spinning constantly to follow the point. It is Reznor and Ross’ techno soundtrack that invites the audience to literally feel the rhythm of the rally and feel how it is both chaotic yet steady.
In a way, this is what Zendaya’s Tashi alludes to earlier in Challengers when she says that tennis is like a relationship. Considering Tashi’s relationships in Challengers, that means it’s toxic yet beautiful — a complete juxtaposition of what is expected, yet also something one would crave forever once they tasted it. That is exactly what the music in Challengers is. It completely goes against what is expected, and yet it makes the audience crave more. Even if Challengers’ ending is already being debated, it is clear that Tashi’s roar is the ultimate release the soundtrack of Challengers has been building to. It finally provides an outlet for not just the characters, but also the audience, as well as a release from those blaring techno beats.
Challengers is now playing in theaters across the U.S.
