Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers premiered relatively early last year, yet remained one of the best movies of 2024. The intense, sultry tennis romance starring Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor had audiences in chokehold and Challengers’ reviews were stellar. From the EDM soundtrack to the complicated yet sexy throuple dynamics, there really wasn’t much to complain about, until the film’s divisive end.
The final scene of Challengers sees a reconciliation of sorts amongst the love triangle between Tashi, Patrick and Art, but there are still so many unanswered questions, leaving audiences frustrated. However, writer Justin Kuritzkes told People he doesn’t feel the need to clarify any remaining loose ends, even if it results in an ambiguous ending:
I hope this isn’t a frustrating answer to you, but my thing with that really is that, by the time they’re all really talking to each other at the end and all their cards are on the table, and the boys are playing the best tennis of their lives and Tashi is playing tennis in her way for the first time in years, to me, at that point I’ve gotten what I wanted from the movie. And the match is irrelevant. Who wins the match is irrelevant because we’ve moved beyond that.
Saying “I hope this isn’t frustrating for you” gives off the same vibes as “No offense, but” before saying something blunt. But alas, he makes a fair point, and now it’s 30-love.
Whether you like his answer or not, the characters do reflect a clear (purposeful) irrelevancy towards the game at the very end.
In the tie-breaking match point, Faist’s Art Donaldson and O’Connor’s Patrick Zweig are battling closer and closer to the net. A hint of a smile shows on Art’s face as both men push themselves to make crazy saves.
It gets to the point where the crowd holds their gasp when Donaldson launches himself up in the air to hit the ball, clearly set to land over the net on top of Zweig. The scene happens in slow motion. Patrick drops his racket to catch his old friend, the two embracing, the outcome of the match forgotten.
Just before the credits roll, Tashi yells “COME ON!” before her fierce expression breaks into a cheer and she claps along with everyone else.
Then that’s it. Who ended up winning the tennis match? Even more important, who wins the game within the game, the game of love? Who ends up with Tashi or do the boys choose their relationship over her? What does Art say to Tashi about her affair with Patrick? What does Tashi do when Art retires?
These are valid questions for people to have after watching Challengers, but the writer says what he likes about movies is their sometimes seemingly abrupt endings:
What they all end up doing in their lives, I don’t know. I guess it’s fun for the audience to think about their own answers to that question. For me, I always like that about movies, that these characters exist when we meet them and they stop existing when the movie’s over. Even if a movie imagines someone’s whole life, cradle to grave, it’s always this artificial container for the kind of chaos of life and human relationships. You’re always only getting a little window into something much bigger. So if people want to fill in the rest, that’s great. But for me, I got what I came for.
I kind of love that he doesn’t care about pleasing the audience, and in the end, his plan still worked. All the elements came together in a way that made it so many were almost disappointed when they left the theater, not because they didn’t enjoy the film, but because there wasn’t more.
Transmitting complex character emotions to an audience in such a fascinating way is something the duo Kuritzkes and Guadagnino do very well. It’s something they’ve continued to do too, because before even wrapping Challengers, the Call Me By Your Name director asked the former playwright to adapt Queer for him.
Both Challengers and Queer ended up with high praise from critics and audiences alike. However, out of the Guadagnino films, only the tennis movie’s score was among the 2025 Golden Globe winners last week.
However, fans are chomping at the bit for more from these two creatives, and therefore the writer/director duo have already signed up to work with Queer star Daniel Craig again on an upcoming DC superhero project.
You’ve not seen the end of their brilliance yet, it is only just the start.
