Challengers is one of the most talked about 2024 new movies, as the story set in the world of tennis focuses on a tantalizing love triangle between stars Zendaya, Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist. But things don't play out quite as you'd expect, as Zendaya's Tashi seems to be after something more. If you left the movie theater wondering what that may be, let us help with this Challengers ending explained breakdown.
Of course, SPOILER alert if you haven't yet watched Challengers, as we're about to get into some major plot details for the movie.
Challengers jumps back and forth between the present (or at least the present of the story, 2019) and the past, detailing how Tashi, Art (Faist) and Patrick's (O’Connor) relationship has evolved over the years. The movie starts in the present as Art, one of the best tennis players in the world, is attempting to get his mojo back after a poor season. Tashi, his wife, decides he needs the confidence boost of playing in a local challengers tournament against low level players. However, in the championship of the event Art has to go up against Patrick, whose professional career has not amounted to much at all but who has a long history with both Art and Tashi.
Years earlier, Art and Patrick were best friends, having grown up playing tennis together. Patrick was actually considered the better player at the time. However, they both are small fish compared to Tashi, who is considered the next tennis phenom. At a party during the US Open Juniors tournament, Art and Patrick introduce themselves to Tashi, with neither hiding their desire to date her. They invite her to their room where she learns more about their close bond and opts to make out with both of them. She eventually pulls away, and with both of them in the moment Art and Patrick don't realize they are just kissing each other. Tashi goes to leave, telling them whichever one of them wins in their match tomorrow is who she'll choose to date.
It ends up being Patrick. But a flash forward reveals that Art and Tashi continue to grow close as they attend college at Stanford while Patrick turns pro. On a visit to campus, Tashi and Patrick get into a big fight. Then, when Tashi suffers a devastating injury, it is Art who comforts her, while Tashi tells Patrick to leave.
Because of her injury, Tashi is unable to play tennis professionally, so she becomes a coach. She eventually works with Art, helps him raise his game and they begin their romantic relationship. Patrick, meanwhile, weaves in and out of their lives as he continues to struggle as a pro, including having an implied affair with Tashi during a tournament in Atlanta.
Though Tashi can't play on the court anymore, she very much is playing a new game, becoming a master manipulator. The question now though is what, or who, does she really want?
What does Tashi want in Challengers?
The key to knowing Tashi's motivation for the entire movie comes in the scene when Tashi, Art and Patrick first meet and talk at the paraty. She describes tennis as a relationship between the two players, which at its peak can be the best feeling in the world. Art gets it, at least to a degree, referencing Tashi's primal scream when she won an intense volley during an earlier match.
After her injury prevents her from playing tennis anymore, Tashi has to look elsewhere to find that same kind of feeling. The closest thing she can find is her relationship with Art and Patrick, each of which is entirely unique.
With Art, Tashi finds someone who is supportive of her and willing to work with her; the problem is she often needs to push him so he can play his best. When it comes to Patrick, it is an intense, heated relationship; he's unfocused and unreliable, but there's an excitement to that.
Throughout the movie Tashi says what she wants is to get Art back to his peak performance for a chance to win the US Open. To do so, she attempts to get Patrick to throw the championship match against Art, even sleeping with him to convince him to do so. But what Tashi really wants is something else.
What happens in the final match?
The movie cuts back to the final match between Art and Patrick in the challenger tournament multiple times, and it's a tight one. However, in the final set, Patrick starts to make some unforced errors, seemingly going along with Tashi's request that he let Art win. However, Patrick can't help himself and decides to mess with his former friend turned rival instead.
When Patrick and Tashi first started dating, Art was curious if the two had slept together. Patrick doesn't want to say, so Art tells him he can just give him a sign by "serving normal." Patrick always serves in a unique style, with him holding the racket behind his head before he tosses the ball. He's kept this throughout his career and has done so in the final match with Art in the present.
To get into Art's head, Patrick begins to serve the ball normally. Art quickly realizes what Patrick is saying with this, quickly telling him to "f**k off." But when he looks at Tashi on the sideline, he begins to believe Patrick is telling the truth; that he and Tashi did sleep together recently.
This gets the intensity up for both players and then engage in a thrilling point, both inching closer to the net until finally Art leaps in the air and over the net. Patrick catches him and the two friends embrace for the first time in years. Tashi rises from the stands and gives a primal scream like she did when she was playing.
So what does all that mean? Our big interpretation of it is that all of Tashi's machinations were a way for her to get the best out of both Art and Patrick. Finally seeing them put it all out on the court brought that feeling Tashi spoke about before out of her, which she finds better than anything in the world. As for Art and Patrick, this was a cathartic moment for the two of them, letting all their pent up emotions (which possibly include some feelings of attraction/love) play out in the point and they have a reconciliation.
Challengers is now playing exclusively in movie theaters.
