Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross had previously worked with director Luca Guadagnino, scoring Guadagnino’s 2022 film Bones and All.[1] Guadagnino approached the pair to score Challengers by sending them an email that read, “Do you want to be on my next film? It’s going to be super sexy.”[2] Guadagnino wanted “very loud techno music” for the film,[3] taking inspiration from Berlin techno and ’90s rave music.[2] The end result was intended to amplify the pace and high-stakes nature of the film.[4]
Challengers (soundtrack) by Wikipedia
It is not very often that a soundtrack not only stands out, but rises above a movie, but this is one of them. The choice of music, slightly over-mixed, helped build the tension of the film. I thought that Atticus Ross captured it well in their acceptance speech for the Golden Globes, “we always thought we’d get the call to turn it down”:
Ross did give a short speech: “This really means a lot, particularly in this special moment. First I’d like to thank my best friend, my musical partner, the great Trent Reznor. The music never felt like a safe choice, but it always felt like the right one. I’d like to thank the maestro, the visionary director, our friend Luca Guadagnino.… To be honest, we always thought we’d get the call ‘Can you just turn it down a little?’ But it never came, and here we are.”
Source: Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Win Best Original Score at Golden Globes 2025 for Challengers by Nina Corcoran