Challengers has the Autostraddle x ForThem team in a chokehold, especially the exquisitely frenetic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. My coworkers have confided in me about all the various activities and tasks they’ve performed as the Challengers score blasted in their headphones or on a nearby speaker, prompting me to confess my own attempts to live inside the tennis-, sweat-, and makeout-filled world of the film. There are sooooo many things you can do while listening to the Challengers score that will immediately feel 50% more intense and 60% sexier by doing so. Here are some ideas! Duncanate your summer!

Also, first, let’s talk the best ways to listen to the Challengers score. Do you fall for the sound of the phone alarm every time? Are the actual tennis sounds a little distracting for you? Check out the version mixed by German music producer Boys Noize. I’m a little partial to the original recipe, but I do smash that skip button on the carols and have distinct favorites that sometimes get the 🔂 treatment. You can always create a custom playlist with the tracks and versions you like best to create a personalized Challengers score experience.

10. Tennis

This is ranked low purely because of its obviousness. If you play tennis, I cannot more highly recommend playing tennis to the Challengers score. I haven’t yet broached the topic of Challengers with the group of women I’m playing tennis with lately, but I intend to show up to one of our clinics in the I TOLD YA shirt soon as a test to see who comments on it. Until then, I’m simply blasting the Challengers score on the drive to tennis. Once I determine how many Challengers Heads I’m playing with, I will insist we clinic to the score.

9. Work

I have it on good authority that doing work of any kind on your computer while the Challengers score plays will immediately have you time-traveling back to late-night study session crams juiced up on caffeine and/or Adderall. Working on a boring spreadsheet? Boss ask you for some deliverables by EOD? Crank up the Challengers score to add some drama and vigor to your day.

8. A long walk

Forget “enjoying” the “beauty” of “nature” and taking in your surroundings while on a walk. Pop on the Challengers score and completely check out of reality, losing yourself in an overcomplicated fantasy involving at least two other people from your past.

7. Scream

A full-body Tashi Duncan scream. It doesn’t have to be after hitting a winner in a high-stakes tennis match. (But bonus points if it IS.) Just doing something cool as hell and then scream after. But make sure the Challengers score is playing as a soundtrack for your yawp.

6. A pool party

Doesn’t watching Challengers feel like being at a never-ending pool party? A surefire way to upgrade any pool party would be to throw the Challengers score on the speaker. Everyone will thank you and think your hot (or ask you if you want to talk about your increasingly worrisome fixation on the feature film Challengers).

5. Everything on your to-do list

Take your most boring tasks and inject them with some jet fuel by completing them to the Challengers score. Laundry, personal finances, vacuuming, dishes — make chores SEXY and COMPETITIVE.

4. Yourself

Do yourself while listening to the Challengers score! It’s quite a simple concept! And on that note…

3. Sex

Look, maybe you’re surprised this is third on the list and not one. But this movie is for the thirds, and besides, sex is a little OBVIOUS here, like tennis. So third place it is. But mark my words: You should go have sex to the Challengers score. Especially gay sex. Or at the very least, makeout to the Challengers score. God, what a good makeout film!

2. Chaotic life choices that could blow up someone’s/your life

Who blows up whose life in Challengers? All of them, to each other, over and over. Tennis is a relationship, and relationships are tennis. Get revenge! Get mean! Make some chaotic choices and don’t worry about the consequences — all while listening to the soothing, chaos-affirming tones of the Challengers score.

1. Emotional terrorism

Yes, this is just a more to-the-point and extreme version of #2. Don’t know where to start in the art of emotional terrorism? Hit play on the Challengers score and then scroll through your contacts or Instagram to see who from your distant past you might be able to torture with a “thinking about you” text or DM.

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