There’s no sound that quite wakes up iPhone users like Apple’s alarm sound – and viewers of the hit Zendaya movie Challengers were reminded of this over the film's opening week.
As shared in an X thread, the opening track from the Challengers movie, also called “Challengers” has an iPhone alarm sound at 1:15 until the end of the song, which is only 1 minute and 25 seconds long. Composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who have previously worked on The Social Network, Gone Girl, and Bird Box, it’s a trance club song with a focus on rhythm and texture.
The song isn’t designed with an easily singable melody, instead intended to be played at clubs and bars. This is what makes that iPhone alarm jump scare work so well. In the track, which you can listen to here, you can hear a grunting noise as the alarm hits, presumably to signal a character from the film waking up.
The audience’s reaction
The original post thread from X describes the alarm as “one of the most triggering things I’ve heard in my entire life.” Another user says: “I’m so comforted to know that others agree because my heart rate went up and I had to take a deep breath.” It seems everyone’s reaction to the iPhone jump scare in the soundtrack is the same — a mixture of horror and surprise.
It’s worth noting that the reason for part of this fear is the fact that many who will have listened to this soundtrack have not yet seen the movie. With Trent Reznor, the frontman of influential rock outfit Nine Inch Nails, involved, many fans of the band will listen to that soundtrack purely to get more music from him. Despite the fact that this iPhone jump scare is from the movie, it has also been kept on the soundtrack. However, as the original post points out, you can listen to the remix of the “Challengers” song, which is a few minutes longer and doesn’t include that dreaded jump scare.
