Challengers: A Character Study
Challengers released back in April earlier this year and I still can’t stop thinking about it. I recently rewatched it on a plane and I couldn’t help but write down a few of my thoughts on the film and how intelligently written all of the characters are.
The depth of human emotions and motivations isn’t exactly easy to break down and fully understand. Challengers does a phenomenal job of showcasing just how convoluted humans are.
Patrick represents the struggle of choosing your dream and passion to subsist off of. Literally a starving artist, if you will. Patrick is driven by his passion and nothing more. There is nothing safe about him or his intentions. He lives and breathes tennis and is consumed by it.
While Patrick has charisma and is an attractive character, he doesn’t have a lot going on, His whole self is extremely shallow and it reflects in his passion for tennis. We never see him take any advice from anyone else and is extremely cocky. He doesn’t even take advice from Tashi who he knows is better than him but refuses to admit it.
Art is the complete opposite of Patrick. Art represents the smart but safe mindset to life with the understanding that your passion can change as you grow in life. Art has always liked tennis but he shows that he can take it or leave it. It's a hobby he’s good at and that’s the most it’s really been for him.
He pushes himself to be passionate for the game even long after he’s checked out of it for the sake of the one thing, or person in this case, he’s truly passionate about: Tashi. Art’s priorities in his passions changed like any normal person would with life.
Tashi represents the most balanced approach in contrast to both Art and Patrick’s wildly different sides. She indulges in her passion but makes sure to put stability and safety first whether or not it involves her passion. This mostly stems from her background where she’s the one putting the money on her family’s table. Early on, we see that she’s able to get massive brand deals, scholarships, and even stablish her own tennis foundation for girls.
This speaks volumes to her priorities and passions which are really just one combined entity. Tashi has been brought up in a much lesser fortunate background than Art or Patrick and takes a lot of responsibility upon herself to take care of her family, her future, and her legacy.
Tashi’s passion goes beyond the temporal now (which Patrick desperately seeks) and rather focuses on her wanting to make things better for her future family line. Honestly, this could play a lot into why Tashi ends up choosing Art over Patrick to marry. He’s safe and reliable, unlike Patrick. But they both have a place in her life that she cannot get rid of because without one, the other will always fail.
Deuce
Like fire and ice, Art and Patrick’s original duo name, the three of them need each other to survive and keep fueling each other. Before Tashi came along, Art and Patrick always balanced each other and had a good way of keeping passion and success together but as soon as another element was added, they lost that immediately.
Art’s passion changed from tennis to Tashi, doing anything she wanted so long as she would want him - including tennis. Again, Art realized that tennis was no this endgame – a life with Tashi was.
However now Art lives as Tashi’s avatar, competing and getting sponsorships, and having this massive team behind him - something that should have been Tashi’s had it not been for her life-changing injury in college. He feels party responsible for this after knowing that Tashi and Patrick’s relationship has been fairly unhealthy for quite some time.
Art clearly struggles with this feeling of survivor’s guilt and does anything and everything Tashi wants to help maintain her dreams and create a better life and foundation for their daughter.
On the opposite side, Patrick loves the struggle. Despite him barely making money to afford food, he still prefers this struggle of a life because this still feels like he’s doing things right per his ego. He truly believes that the struggle means you’re on the path to success. He’s self-made and has not had any handouts or help and he takes pride in that, even if he has to manipulate other people to find a place to sleep that night.
Art has what Patrick wants - fame and money but Patrick has what Art needs – passion and drive.
The difference between Art’s safe corporate route versus Patrick’s struggle is stark. We see Art’s health metrics being carefully tracked and his food and drink intake being monitored while Patrick subsists off of whatever he can get his hands on.
Art is given fresh competition clothing from his sponsors while Patrick has to wear his second unlaundered shirt halfway through a match. The numerous differences in their lifestyles really speak for themselves.
However, Patrick and Art have so much in common and are clearly more connected than just friends. Even when they’re shown in their older years when they don’t identify as friendly, there’s still a particular tension there that’s inexplicable chemistry. Obviously, we don’t have to talk about that one scene with the two of them with Tashi, but it helps my argument quite a bit.
We know that Patrick is attracted to men and women, as he’s seen swiping right on men and women on his dating app, which could partly explain his connection to Art. Art is also Patrick’s safety. He’s comfortable with him and Patrick knows what to expect with Art, something that Tashi also appreciates.
It’s interesting that there’s a parallel we see with Art spitting his gum in Patrick’s hand later in the movie that follows an earlier scene of Art spitting his gum in Tashi’s hand before playing tennis. Art is their anchor.
Art seems to understand this as well but is mostly concerned with not wanting to be left out with either of these people he loves and cares for. Art actually specifically states that he doesn’t want to be left out when Patrick and Tashi begin dating and asks for details.
Art would be losing both Patrick and Tashi when they started dating, so his jealousy and feeling of being left out goes both ways - between the woman he loves and the man he loves.
Tiebreak Set
However, Patrick isn’t in love with Tashi but rather is in love with Tashi’s talent and her potential because that’s everything he wants in his own life. Art is in love with Tashi, not even just due to her talent or passion but rather with just who she is as a whole.
Tashi is not in love with anyone but tennis and herself. She claims she doesn’t want anyone to be in love with her but she does want to be worshipped and craves that audience she used to have and that presence she held.
Art fulfills that need and offers safety for Tashi to lean on, knowing he is fully malleable to anything she will request of him, unlike Patrick who will do anything he wants when he wants and can’t be controlled.
All Art has ever cared for is Tashi’s happiness since the day he met her. All Patrick has cared for is what Tashi brings outwardly immediately – her status, outward beauty, and fame. Patrick doesn’t truly respect Tashi, not even her tennis game.
The only time we see Tashi truly rattled is during the argument she has with Patrick in her dorm room where he claims she just wants him to be part of her fan club. We see Tashi bristle and reply, "You're not a member of my fan club?” Patrick retorts with, “I’m your peer and I’m certainly not going to be your student.”
As much as Tashi tried to hide it, this argument hit her to her core and she was thrown off her normal pre-game routine and ended up injuring herself due to it. The injury, of course, wasn’t anyone’s fault, but we know that Art and Tashi despise Patrick for it anyway.
This does make Patrick deciding to beg Tashi for assistance later on pretty satisfying. Unfortunately, even at this point, it may be too late for anyone to save Patrick’s career. Of course, he seems to know this already but refuses to actually admit it. He may also have just wanted to crawl back into Tashi’s pants (which we know he was successful with) but either way, we did see that he had gained a sliver of perspective during his lone struggle.
Mixed Doubles
Each character has a play style that is indicative of their personalities: Tashi is calculated and precise, Art is incredibly textbook and can’t break out of habits he’s learned over time, and Patrick is wild but able to adapt in each match he plays.
Art mentions that Patrick has never beaten him but tells him he feels no need to prove he can. While this is the lie he gives Patrick, Art is desperate for the win because he knows his life with Tashi is on the line.
The night before, the night Tashi and Patrick have an affair, we see Art in his most vulnerable form fidgeting before approaching Tashi to tell her he wants to be done with tennis and retire to spend time with her and their daughter.
Even though Tashi tells him that’s fine, he knows it’s not and comes back to her and asks her to tell him what to do. He literally gets on his knees to tell her to just tell him what she wants. Tashi replies saying if he doesn’t beat Patrick that she would leave him. Art drops his head and Tashi gently says “Does this help you?” as if to play it off as a harsh form of motivation rather than the true statement both her and Art know it to be.
Of course, Tashi does care for Art, but no more than a mother for her child by obligation. Art is such a pure-hearted person, and Tashi and Patrick both know he’s the best of them all. So, they do their best to maintain Art’s innocence and love.
After she puts Art to sleep, she goes to meet Patrick. In this moment she’s feeling panic and anxiety knowing that her world with tennis may be ending. Art's career was really her career which was now on its last legs. This brings her to Patrick’s car where she begs him to lose in the tournament tomorrow.
While this could have been due to her not wanting to leave Art if he lost, it’s fairly obvious she was more concerned with the loss of a match against Patrick demoralizing Art into retirement, which would be kissing her tennis career with him goodbye.
Tashi feels trapped, knowing her relationship with Art would now not just be coach and player but wife and husband and she can’t necessarily handle that. She knows no love for another person but rather for tennis. Without tennis, she doesn’t have a relationship with Art.
In meeting Patrick that night, Tashi sees reflected in him what she wishes she could be - wild and free with no need to play safe. But again, due to wanting to provide for her family and have a partner she knows she can control and thus coach properly to play like herself, she can’t be with Patrick.
Game and Set
At the New Rochelle Challenger, everyone’s emotions and nerves are at an all-time high. Art feels that his life is about to be turned upside down if he doesn’t win this game, Patrick just wants to make his next paycheck with a win, and Tashi desperately needs Art to win and is anticipating Patrick throwing the game intentionally.
We see Patrick’s internal turmoil with wanting to potentially help Tashi and Art but enjoys the game too much and is playing his normal way. At a certain point, with even scoring throughout the day, Patrick has a moment of clarity and understands that he has no idea how this game is going to turn out and either of them could win.
They’re evenly matched and Patrick just wants to have a little fun and potentially repair his relationship with Art. Patrick initiates his serve with the same pose he copied from Art to confirm that he had slept with Tashi. Art recognizes this, even years after this communication response had been used and is, at first, angry.
Art has a moment of reflection where he finally seems to accept that Tashi has never truly been his and that he’s fallen out of love with tennis over the last few years just trying to earn the love of a woman who could never return that same love back.
In looking up at Patrick, Art realizes that the passion he’s been missing, that he’s been desperately hoping Tashi would give him, has actually been with Patrick and the game.
Then they play tennis. Real tennis. While the winner of the last match isn’t pointedly clear, it doesn’t matter. Everyone has won: Tashi finally got that game of tennis she’d been desperately trying to teach both Art and Patrick to understand and play, and Art and Patrick have reconnected and become one with Fire and Ice.