Epic! The Challengers' soundtrack uplifts The Game

Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers is charged with tension - erotic, competitive, psychological. But none of it would hit quite the same without its pulsating, shape-shifting score. Composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and transformed into a 28-minute sonic juggernaut by Boys Noize, the Challengers soundtrack is a live wire running through the film.

Guadagnino opens the film with Henry Purcell’s Sound the Trumpet, a baroque choral piece that plays over the first on-screen match between Art and Patrick. The choice frames tennis as something ceremonial; but very quickly, that structure collapses under the weight of distorted synths, hammering beats, and club-level sound design.

Much of the film’s score operates in that hard techno space—loop-driven, mechanical, and high-intensity. Tracks like “Brutalizer” and “Yeah x10” aren’t just dancefloor-ready - they’re claustrophobic, built for pressure. Reznor and Ross use sound the way Guadagnino uses gaze: to signal who’s in control and who’s unraveling.

Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan engineers much of this chaos. Once a prodigy, now sidelined by injury, reclaims power by becoming a strategist; coaching, manipulating, and quietly dominating. The score tracks her movements closely. Whenever she asserts authority, the beat tightens. When her grip slips, space creeps in.

“Compress / Repress” features Reznor on vocals, singing lines co-written by Guadagnino. Flat, eerie, and deeply unlike anything from his Nine Inch Nails past.

This is among the most muscular scores Reznor and Ross have released. The soundtrack earned the Golden Globe for Best Original Score earlier this year; and rightly so. Even critics who panned the film singled out the music as its undeniable core.

There’s been no shortage of great film music this year, but nothing else comes close to what Challengers achieves. And honestly, nothing else will.

Available now at The Revolver Club. Link in bio.