Photo: MGM /Courtesy Everett Collection/©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collectio
The ending of Challengers is a marvel of over-the-top stylistic choices from director Luca Guadagnino and an emotional catharsis for all the characters. It has everything — Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) actually hashing things out on the court, and Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) looking on from the sidelines, finally able to watch some good fucking tennis. Then there’s that volley! That score! Those ball POV shots! The slow motion! The sweaty embrace! The soul-deep howl of “COME ON!” It’s perfect in every way, which is why we have no choice but to ruin it. Look, if no less than Serena Williams has been having trouble making peace with a finale that leaves the future of the movie’s relationships up in the air, then who are we to not rush in with our own personal headcanons for what happens after the credits roll? Here are our personal theories for what comes next for our favorite hypercompetitive trio.
That final shot where Art jumps super-high and falls into a hug over Patrick is actually just in Tashi’s head. What actually happens is he jumps super-high and floats away like at the end of The Whale. He is free. —Rebecca Alter
Art, even with his renewed competitive fire, is ready to retire and stop being the imperfect avatar for Tashi’s thwarted tennis dreams. Patrick is incapable of submitting to being coached by Tashi, which she knows, so even if some tiny part of her wants to prove she could make him into a champion, she’s too smart to do that to herself. What I think happens is that Art quits, becomes a TV talking head (as predicted), and finally gets to eat hamburgers, while Patrick also finally gives up, gets some job through the rich parents he pretends he doesn’t have, and comes to terms with having been at least half in love with Art this whole time despite only ever being able to express his feelings through overly aggressive noogies. It’s clear that neither Art nor Patrick is enough for Tashi, but I can see her keeping them around together, the two of them adding up to one suitable lover. That said, however hot a throuple they’d make, they’d be even more dysfunctional due to the trouble they all have being honest about their feelings. —Alison Wilmore
Art and Patrick open a churro truck on Coney Island. —Anusha Praturu
Patrick finally achieves his dream of getting fucked with a racquet. —Nate Jones
Art retires after failing to win the 2019 U.S. Open. Tashi accepts Patrick’s offer to coach him, which puts a further strain on her marriage to Art, but they’re trying to make it work anyway. Patrick and Tashi are training when COVID-19 lockdowns hit and are forced to quarantine together, while Art spirals. At the 2020 U.S. Open, Patrick and Tashi make their public debut as a couple.
By the end of the movie, Tashi can no longer rely on Art or Patrick to be a player who she can control and experience the sport vicariously through. So, instead, she’ll have to divert her attention to a more malleable protégé — her Spider-Verse–loving daughter. She’ll become a cutthroat stage mother (court mother?), determined to turn Lily into the player she herself was supposed to become. —Tom Smyth
Tashi, Patrick, and Art head to the sauna for a post-game celebration and carry on where they left off in that hotel room 13 years ago. They make their debut as a throuple at the Met Gala a few weeks later.
Post-credits scene: We see Tashi’s mom watching that red carpet from some hotel with Lily — Tashi’s dad’s present-day whereabouts still unclear — she smirks, gets up, and then calls Maury. Fade to black. Cue title card: TASHI WILL RETURN. —Dee Lockett
After the end, there’s one more flashback to the night the three of them first met, and they all sing “Our Time” from Merrily We Roll Along. —Rebecca Alter, again
Art’s jump into Patricks arms, while well meaning, inadvertently severs Patrick’s spine. Wracked with guilt after injuring the two most important people in his life, Art devotes himself to the sport until his body gives out on the court two years later. He dies, and Patrick and Tashi, unable to play tennis any longer, live miserably ever after. —Julie Kosin
Patrick and Art make up and start a jewelry business together making earrings for people with abnormally large ears. Tashi runs the business as their CEO, and Patrick, Art, and Tashi collectively have two more children, whom Tashi is alternately emotionally distant from and extremely hard on. Eventually, the earring business transforms into a media empire, and, after Patrick and Art retire with their riches, Tashi holds on to the CEO job. Her three children are competing to replace her and, thus, for the first time in their collective lives, make her proud. Tashi dies while still in the job on the same day as Lily’s wedding, which she is skipping due to business. The three children vie in the public eye for control of the company (Duncan-ZweCo.) while grappling with Tashi’s complicated legacy in their lives, but the job eventually goes to Lily’s idiot savant husband. The final shot of the film is Lily and her husband Tim Wimblesgams holding hands in the back of a limo leaving the U.S. Open. —Jason P. Frank
Tashi, Patrick, and Art go back to the hotel to celebrate, and Tashi convinces the boys to do more than make out. But Art has some trouble, and it all ends with Tashi screaming, “COME ON!!!!” It recontextualizes that entire movie and reminds you that Tashi is a VOYEUR and a CUCK, and that’s why she loves watching good tennis so much. —Zach Schiffman
Laura Davis is an entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to Broadway, she offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
