Art, Tashi and Patrick sit on a bed in a scene from Challengers
Movies

There Are ‘No Exit’ Triangles Everywhere for Those With Eyes to See

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Or at least I just like thinking about No Exit triangles.

The last one I was able to diagram was about Halt and Catch Fire. That turned into more of a parallelogram as Donna (rightfully) started playing a bigger role in the proceedings.

This time I was thinking about Challengers.  In our Best Movies of 2024 podcast, it came up that Tashi was sort of a thwarted character, because she lost her ability to play early on in the movie. But that’s what makes a No Exit triangle great — everyone has something that they want that one of the other points of the triangle has, and everyone has something themselves that the other points of the triangle want.

So I mapped it out, and here’s how it worked out this time.

How Tashi, Art and Patrick map out onto the qualities of ability to play, killer instinct, material comfort and love of a partner

Does this translate into a satisfying narrative arc for every point on the triangle? Hey, I just make the graphs.

Marisa
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