Challengers | 2024 | R | – 7.4.10

Why is “Challengers” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language throughout, some sexual content and graphic nudity.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes several sex scenes and implied sex scenes with partial nudity, a few kissing scenes between a man and a woman and between two men, non-sexual full male nudity, discussions of sex, a career-ending knee injury, a woman spitting in a man’s face, a face slap, many arguments, many tennis matches with players becoming angry on the court and slamming their rackets on the ground (sometime breaking them), and over 50 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

---

After a devastating injury destroys the hopes of a tennis player (Zendaya) to go professional, the only way she sees to maintain her connection to the game is by coaching another player that shows promise (Mike Faist). However, when he hits a rough patch he has to face an old friend (Josh O’Connor), who’s also her former boyfriend, on the court to try to get back in the game. Directed by Luca Guadagnino. [Running Time: 2:11]

Challengers SEX/NUDITY 7

 – A woman wearing shorts and a cropped top that reveal her bare legs to the upper thighs and partial bare abdomen sits on a bed in a hotel room and invites two men to join her; she kisses one man and he touches her bare thigh, she kisses the other man, the two men kiss her neck on either side and they both kiss her on the lips simultaneously until they are all three kissing; she then lays back to watch the two men continuing to kiss each other. A man wearing boxer shorts climbs on a bed with a woman and they kiss passionately, she straddles him and takes off her shirt (we see her bra and underwear, revealing her nipples through the fabric of the bra, and her bare buttocks) and they continue to kiss passionately; she reaches into his boxer shorts, they stop and argue and the man leaves the room.
► A husband caresses his wife’s bare leg and nibbles on her hand before resting his head on her lap. A man tells a woman that he wants to kiss her, she moves closer to him and they kiss passionately, they lean against a car and continue to kiss and caress each other until they are interrupted by a loud noise nearby. A man sits with a woman in a bar and they talk, move closer to each other, the man touches the woman’s hand and they kiss passionately (the woman is married to another man) and it is implied that they have sex. A husband and wife kiss and caress each other on a bed, they stop, seem tearful and the man rests his head in her lap as the scene ends. A woman leaves her hotel room (where her husband and child are sleeping), calls another man and he picks her up in his car; they argue, they kiss and we see them after having sex lying together in the backseat of the car (we see his bare chest and shoulders and her bare shoulders). A woman spits in a man’s face, then kisses him passionately (sex is implied).
► Two men and a woman talk about sex and one man describes having taught the other man how to masturbate. Two men in a hotel room talk about wanting to have sex with a woman, they hear a knock at the door and scramble to get dressed before answering and seeing that the woman they were talking about is at the door. In several scenes, a woman says that she is not a homewrecker. A man looks at a dating app on his phone and swipes pictures before focusing on one. A woman accuses a man of “prostituting yourself to find a place to sleep.” A man asks another man if he had sex with a woman and is visibly upset with the answer. A man says that a woman is “The hottest woman I have ever seen.”
► A men’s locker room scene shows fully nude men showering and walking through the room (their genitals, bare buttocks, chests, abdomens, back and legs are shown), and others that are wearing underwear that reveal genital bulges and bare abdomen, chest and back. Two nude men with towels strategically placed over their groins sit in a sauna (we see one man’s bare back, buttocks and legs) and one tells the other to put his [anatomical term deleted] away. A man lies in bed wearing jockey shorts that reveal his bare chest, abdomen, back and legs and a woman in the room wears a bra and underwear that reveal cleavage, bare abdomen, back, legs and partial buttocks. A man is shirtless and wearing long shorts (we see his bare chest, abdomen and back). A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders. Women wear low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage and bare shoulders in a few scenes. A woman wears a short negligee that reveals cleavage, bare shoulders and bare legs to the upper thighs in a few scenes.
► Men and women dance at a party and one young woman dances seductively as two young men stare at her.

Challengers VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A woman slides on the tennis court to reach a ball and her knee snaps unnaturally; she falls to the court and cries and we see her later with a large bandage on her knee and later with a brace.
► A man and a woman argue bitterly and she slaps him hard in the face before storming away. A man and woman argue and she spits in his face (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details). Many tennis match sequences show players hitting balls hard with loud sounds of impact and the players grunting or yelling. A man serves a tennis ball very hard toward another man’s head and it slams into the mat wall behind him. A man slaps another man in the groin and he falls on a bed groaning.
► A man pounds a tennis racket on a court until it breaks. A man pounds his tennis racket on a bench in a locker room angrily. A woman yells and pounds her tennis racket on the court during a match. A woman plays a tennis match and appears to be making angry faces when she hits the ball. A man chases another man around a tennis court playfully jumping over benches and around other players. A woman yells while practicing on a tennis court, and she falls and pounds her racket on the court. Two tennis players play a long and aggressive match and one leaps into the air to take a final shot and lands on the ground where the two players embrace.
► A woman yells at a man to leave when he comes to see her after an injury; another man in the room yells at the man to leave and he does. A man yells at a line judge during a match and gets a violation. A man and a woman speak heatedly and she tells him to leave her alone. A wife tells her husband that she will leave him if he doesn’t win a match. A woman tells a man to decimate an opponent. A woman says that she would have killed to be able to play tennis in a match and then describes that she would have “stabbed an old lady or a child” (jokingly). A woman asks a tennis player to lose a match on purpose. A woman tries to motivate a man before a tennis match in a few scenes. A man tries to undermine another man before and during tennis matches in several scenes. A man tries to undermine a relationship a woman has with another man. A man yells at a woman and tells her that he is not going to let her push him around. A woman asks a man, “Did you think I was going to kill myself?” (after suffering an injury). A man says of another man, “He’s ready to die.” A man tells another man, “You never grew up.” A man says that he is on a date with a woman because he needs a place to sleep.
► A man sleeps in his car in a parking lot and a security guard wakes him and tells him he can’t sleep there. A man’s credit card is declined at a motel and the receptionist tells him he needs to find a homeless shelter.
► A man has a stretching session with another man stretching his legs and hips. We see a scar on a woman’s knee after an injury. A man’s shoulder appears to have scars on it.
► Part of a tennis match sequence is shot from the perspective of the ball and it is dizzying. Heavy winds blow through an area where a tennis tournament is scheduled and tents and signs are blown around. A woman shakes a vending machine to get a snack.

Challengers LANGUAGE 10

 – About 53 F-words and its derivatives, 7 sexual references, 1 obscene hand gesture, 5 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 4 mild obscenities, name-calling (rusty, loser, child, stupid, insanely hot woman, egotistical, little [mild obscenity deleted], disaster, worst friend in the world, lap dog, he smells, sore loser, idiot, swagger, unforgivable), exclamations (shut-up), 1 religious profanity (GD), 8 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus, Jesus [F-word deleted] Christ, Jesus Christ, God, oh God, oh my God). | profanity glossary |

Challengers SUBSTANCE USE

 – Three people share a can of beer in a hotel room, a woman drinks a glass of wine, a woman drinks a whiskey in a bar, and two men ask a woman to go back to their room and they say, “We have beer.” Two men smoke cigarettes on a beach, a man asks a woman to join him for a cigarette and we see him smoking outside, and two men smoke cigarettes in a hotel room.

Challengers DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Professional sports, ego, drive to succeed, infidelity, having something else to do once you give up or age out of a sport.

Challengers MESSAGE

 – Giving up something you love is difficult.