History Film / Saltburn

The supporting cast includes Creator/ArchieMadekwe, Creator/AlisonOliver, Creator/CareyMulligan and Creator/PaulRhys.

* RedIsViolent: Duncan draws the curtains to the dining room so that the family taking their lunch within doesn't have to see [[spoiler: Felix's dead body being carted off by the coroner just outside. Thus, the family's efforts to ignore the situation at hand are bathed in a dark shade of crimson for the rest of the scene. Just to hammer things home, a dazed Venetia empties a bottle of red wine into an overflowing glass, staining the tablecloth red, as well.]]

* AllThereInTheManual: In the film, it's not clear if Duncan is still around at Saltburn when [[spoiler:Oliver kills the now-disabled Elspeth]] and what (if any) repercussions there will be. The script makes it clear that [[spoiler:Duncan is still there, hovering over Oliver, and suggests that Oliver will at least try to get rid of him, whether through sinister means or otherwise]].

** Oliver is somewhere between this and AmbiguouslyGay. He's madly besotted with Felix and gets close to an AlmostKiss during their confrontation (though explicitly denies being in love with him), he gives Farleigh a handjob, and he kisses and goes down on Venetia, but [[spoiler:was likely doing so just to get closer to the various Cattons in pursuit of Saltburn.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:Just how much did Oliver genuinely care about the Cattons? A lot of his actions were definitely deceptive, but sometimes (such as with Felix's grave) he shows genuine emotion in ways that don't seem to benefit his plans. Did he ever consider Felix an actual friend, [[AmbigiouslyGay or more]]? What about Venetia or Elspeth? At the end he claims to have always hated all of them, but of course, [[ConsummateLiar he's not exactly a reliable source.]]]]

* BiggerIsBetterInBed: Oliver is implied to have an enormous penis. When the family watches Oliver remove his shorts to join them in nude sunbathing, everyone is surprised and impressed. However, we do actually get a [[MaleFrontalNudity few glimpses]] at Oliver's penis in the end, and it's pretty normal.

** The dish Farleigh had reportedly stolen was a piece whose name Farleigh hadn't recognized earlier in the movie [[spoiler:when Oliver mentioned it, surprising James with his knowledge. The mention of the name in the e-mail is a first hint that Farleigh wasn't the sender.]]

* GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler:Several character deaths that we understand to have been unpleasant (Felix from being poisoned, Venetia from suicide) are mostly kept offscreen, with the characters' bodies afterwards being shown briefly or implied. This contrasts notably with the {{averted|Trope}} case of Oliver killing Elspeth; him ripping her ventilator out of her throat and watching her convulse and asphyxiate is all shown onscreen.]]

* ShoutOut: In one scene, Venetia tells Oliver that Sir James has nicknamed him ComicBook/SpiderMan, "because you're always just skulking around, weaving your spider-y, Oliver-y web."

** Felix shows Oliver his family's ritual of honoring deceased loved ones by writing their name on a stone and throwing it into the river. [[spoiler:Oliver decides to try it using a stone with his father's name, but he misses the water completely, and the stone instead lands on the riverbank -- possibly because, as is later revealed, his father isn't actually dead.]]

** When Percy Shelley's doppelgänger is being discussed over breakfast, [[spoiler:a person with Felix's clothes and build passes by the window. We're then told that Shelley died shortly after his doppelgänger was seen.]]

** The jewelry Farleigh had reportedly stolen was a piece whose name Farleigh hadn't recognized earlier in the movie [[spoiler:when Oliver mentioned it, surprising James with his knowledge. The mention of the name in the e-mail is a first hint that Farleigh wasn't the sender.]]

** [[spoiler:Oliver gives Farleigh a handjob in his bed to steal his phone and frame him for apparently stealing jewelry from Sir James, which gets him temporarily exiled.]]

!! ''Saltburn'' contains examples of:

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: Just how much did Oliver genuinely care about the Cattons? A lot of his actions were definitely deceptive, but sometimes (such as with Felix's grave) he shows genuine emotion in ways that don't seem to benefit his plans. Did he ever consider Felix an actual friend, [[AmbigiouslyGay or more]]? What about Venetia or Elspeth? At the end he claims to have always hated all of them, but of course, [[ConsummateLiar he's not exactly a reliable source.]]]]

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: Oliver gets away with his role in destroying the entire Catton family and taking their estate for his own.]]

* TheBeautifulElite: The Catton family consists of the beautiful Lady Elspeth and her equally beautiful children, Felix and Venetia. Head of the family, Sir James Catton, whilst not quite beautiful, is certainly dashing in his own way, and as a [[BlueBlood baronet]], he owns a vast inherited country house, featuring multiple rooms filled with priceless furniture and artworks as well as a fleet of staff. The family live a glamorously louche existence, culminating in a birthday party thrown for Oliver of such megalomaniacal proportions that it wouldn’t look out a lot of place on the party pages of society bible, ''Tatler''.

* BlueBlood: The honorific "Sir", and the fact that his title is hereditary, denotes that Felix and Venetia’s father James is a baronet. His title written in full would be "Sir James Catton, Baronet". Whilst baronetcies are hereditary, typically passing in the male line, they are not peers, having never been conferred noble status. Socially, however, baronets are regarded as part of the British aristocracy. Elspeth, James’ wife, would use the title "Lady", and the baronetcy and associated estate would pass to Felix upon his father’s death.
* BourgeoisBohemian:

* CreepySouvenir: [[spoiler: After killing the entire Catton family, Oliver takes their memorial stones from the river and puts them in the living room, apparently just to gloat.]]

** The jewelry Farleigh had reportedly stolen was a piece whose name Farleigh hadn't recognized earlier in the movie [[spoiler: when Oliver mentioned it, surprising James with his knowledge. The mention of the name in the e-mail is a first hint that Farleigh wasn't the sender.]]

* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler: Oliver]]'s plan apparently included simply waiting fifteen years for [[spoiler: James to die on his own, hoping that there would have been no one else significant coming into Elspeth's life able to hinder his plans, and that she would have kept a fond memory of a boy she met for merely six months over a decade ago.]]

-->'''Sir James:''' [[spoiler:You’re not the only person here with feelings. None of us wants your bloody American feelings.]]

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler: This happens to Elspeth and James, twice, and in quick succession. Despite their vapid ways, it's clear that they're genuinely devastated by this.]]

* ShoutOut: In one scene, Venetia tells Oliver that Sir James has nicknamed him ComicBook/SpiderMan, "because you’re always just skulking around, weaving your spider-y, Oliver-y web."

* StiffUpperLip: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]. The Cattons are a fairly repressed bunch, very rarely allowing themselves to feel things deeply. [[spoiler:After Felix is found dead, they try to muddle on through the day without acknowledging the gravity of the situation. The fact that they don't do a very good job of it at all only highlights the futility of such an attitude. Even their butler gets in on this, clearly struggling to maintain his usual icy demeanor despite he himself being rattled by what's happened.]]

** Oliver refuses Sir James's request that he leave Saltburn so that Elspeth can mourn properly, but Oliver refuses, claiming it wouldn't be in her best interest. Ultimately, [[spoiler:Sir James bribes him to leave]].

** A less extreme one, but when we finally meet Oliver's mother, she casually says, [[spoiler:"Your father’s in the garden," after Oliver told Felix his father died a year ago.]]

--->'''Oliver:''' It broke her completely. She said it herself. [[spoiler:[[DrivenToSuicide She couldn’t live without him.]]]]

--->'''Oliver:''' I can honestly say that these last few months have been the happiest of my life. [[spoiler:It’s just such a shame you got so ill.]]

-->'''[[spoiler:Oliver:]]''' We got there in the end, didn’t we? Somehow. Thank God. After all those terrible, terrible accidents. But...[[spoiler:[[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident is there]] ''[[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident really]]'' [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident ever such a thing as an accident]], Elspeth? I don’t know. Accidents are for people like you. For the rest of us, there’s work. And unlike you, [[ManipulativeBastard I actually know how to work.]]]]

* MythicalMotifs: Vampires, to the point that the creators consider it a vampire movie even without any supernatural elements. The movie's aesthetics is heavily influenced by vampire movies and their gothic atmosphere. Oliver calls himself a vampire when [[spoiler:eating out Venetia during her period]], and one can see it as a story of [[spoiler:Oliver sucking the Cattons dry over the course of the years like a vampire feeding on them, as well as being a parasitic being in their lives]].

* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler: Oliver]]'s plan apparently included simply waiting fifteen years for [[spoiler: James to die on his own, hoping that there would have been no one else significant coming into Elspeth's life able to hinder his plans, and that she would have kept a fond memory of a boy she met for merely six years over a decade ago.]]

** A naked Oliver cavorting through the now-deserted Saltburn. Creator/BarryKeoghan is sexy ''and'' in very good shape, but it's hard to be titillated after [[spoiler:knowing he killed the entire Catton family and got away with it]].

* HowWeGotHere: The film opens on Oliver in a bright room recalling his feelings about Felix, and the film cuts back and forth between the chronological events of the plot and his commentary on them, indicating both through him speaking in past tense and his changed appearance (more mature and well-groomed) that this is him in the future after the plot's events have taken place. Once that scene becomes the present of the film, it's revealed that [[spoiler:he is telling all of this to a mortally ill and bedridden Elspeth]].

* MaleFrontalNudity: Oliver's nards are seen briefly as he cavorts through the empty house.

** Near the end of Oliver's movie-long explanation of his relationship with Felix, [[spoiler:one line (followed by the second example of WhamShot below) reveals who exactly he's explaining to]]:

** Shortly after the above example, [[spoiler:Oliver]] reveals [[spoiler:just how much of the film's events had been his own orchestrating]].

** After post-TimeSkip Oliver states that Venetia [[spoiler:"couldn't live without" Felix after his death]], the film cuts straight to [[spoiler:Venetia laying motionless in the bathtub where Oliver left her, which is filled with her blood]].
** The reveal that Oliver's movie-long commentary on the events of the film [[spoiler:was actually him speaking to Elspeth, bedridden with illness]].

** Shortly after the above example, [[spoiler:Oliver]] says another line that reveals [[spoiler:how much of the film's events had been his orchestrating]].

** The reveal that Oliver's movie-long commentary on the events of the film [[spoiler:was actually to Elspeth, bedridden with illness and on a ventilator]].

* GrimUpNorth: Oliver comes from Liverpool, and is the orphaned child of abusive addicts. It's repeatedly PlayedForLaughs in that [[OopNorth Elspeth and Pamela have no idea where Liverpool is, and everyone at Saltburn finds it pretty exotic]]. [[spoiler:This seems to have been what Oliver was counting on, since while he ''is'' from Liverpool, he comes from a normal, middle-class, and loving family.]]

* SilenceIsGolden: The sequence of

** After Oliver's encounter with Venetia in the bathtub after [[spoiler:Felix's death]], the film cuts to the future version of him, who [[spoiler:reveals what became of her shortly before we see for ourselves]].

** [[spoiler:Venetia in the bathtub filled with her blood.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** We have no idea what happened to Farleigh after he was banished from Saltburn [[spoiler: though he should consider himself lucky he didn't end up dead like everyone else]].

* YouAreWhatYouHate: Farleigh is the most classist character in the film, bullying Oliver relentlessly for being poor and living as a parasite at Saltburn. However, Farleigh is the most like Oliver of all the cast. As an ImpoverishedPatrician whose parents are bankrupt, he too lives at Saltburn at the expense of his wealthier family members. His American accent and African ancestry set him apart just as much as Oliver.

''Saltburn'' is the second film written and directed by Creator/EmeraldFennell, her followup to 2020's ''Film/PromisingYoungWoman''.

It's 2006, and Oliver Quick (Creator/BarryKeoghan) is a working-class student out of place at [[UsefulNotes/{{Oxbridge}} Oxford]] except for his OnlyFriend, Michael Gavey (Creator/EwanMitchell). When the wealthy and popular Felix Catton (Creator/JacobElordi) suggests that he come to Felix's family estate, Saltburn, for the summer, Oliver jumps at the opportunity. However, when he meets Felix's parents, Elspeth (Creator/RosamundPike) and Sir James (Creator/RichardEGrant), Oliver enters a mysterious and treacherous world of privilege and obsession.

The teaser trailer is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNYepvUtYGA here.]] The film premiered at Telluride on 31st August, 2023, and was released in the UK on November 16th. The full trailer is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lALMdJf6UUE here.]] It then had a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on November 24th, 2023, before opening wide on December 1st.

* ArtisticLicense: ‘Saltburn’ is an odd choice of name for a stately home, as Saltburn-by-the-Sea, its namesake, is a quaint Northern seaside town.

* BatmanGambit: It turns out that [[spoiler:Oliver has been using a string of them to worm his way into the Cattons' good graces and pick them off one by one. A few examples include putting a nail in Felix's bike tire to engineer their MeetCute and placing razor blades within sight of the traumatized and bathing Venetia to facilitate her bathtub suicide]].

* BlueBlood: The honorific ‘Sir’, and the fact that his title is hereditary, denotes that Felix and Venetia’s father James is a baronet. His title written in full would be ‘Sir James Catton, Baronet’. Whilst baronetcies are hereditary, typically passing in the male line, they are not peers, having never been conferred noble status. Socially, however, baronets are regarded as part of the British aristocracy. Elspeth, James’ wife, would use the title ‘Lady’, and the baronetcy and associated estate would pass to Felix upon his father’s death.

* DancePartyEnding: A one-person example. [[spoiler:Oliver, having killed off the Cattons and inherited Saltburn, joyously dances through the mansion stark naked to "Murder on the Dance Floor" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Pamela kills herself offscreen not long after being cast out of Saltburn. Venetia slashes her wrists (with razors thoughtfully provided by Oliver) after her brother's death. And while Sir James' cause of death is left ambiguous, Elspeth remarks that she doesn't know "what took him so long" after Felix's death.]]

** A naked Oliver cavorting through the now-deserted Saltburn. Creator/BarryKeoghan is sexy ''and'' in very good shape, but it's hard to be titillated after [[spoiler:knowing he killed the entire Catton family and got away with it.]]

* FishOutOfWater: Oliver has no idea how to live among the aristocracy, and he's constantly gaffing. He arrives at Saltburn early and on his own, not realizing that the family had sent a car for him. He doesn't have black tie clothing for the formal dinners. He doesn't understand how breakfast works or who he's supposed to talk to first at a dinner party.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: [[spoiler: When we see Oliver's childhood house, it's a well-maintained two-storey home in a nice-looking neighborhood rather than the run-down rattrap he implied to Felix. As soon as we knock on the door, we discover that he was lying about growing up in wretched poverty.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}:

** Oliver uses [[spoiler:giving him a handjob]] to frame Farleigh for apparently stealing jewelry and gets him temporarily exiled.
** Oliver plants drugs in Farleigh's room in order to imply that [[spoiler: Felix's death is his fault and result in him being permanently banished from Saltburn]].
* GrimUpNorth: Oliver comes from Liverpool, and is the orphaned child of abusive addicts. It's repeatedly PlayedForLaughs in that [[OopNorth Elspeth and Pamela have no idea where Liverpool is, and everyone at Saltburn finds it pretty exotic.]] [[spoiler:This seems to have been what Oliver was counting on, since while he ''is'' from Liverpool, he comes from a normal, middle-class, and loving family.]]
* HeatWave: The summer of 2007 is portrayed [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality (inaccurately)]] as being this. While there was a heatwave in the summer of 2007 elsewhere in Europe, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_United_Kingdom_floods large parts of the UK were actually flooded throughout June and July 2007.]]
* HedgeMaze: The Saltburn estate has a huge, labyrinthine maze, with [[MobileMaze a smaller version]] in the house itself. [[spoiler:That's where Felix dies.]]
* HiddenDisdainReveal: [[spoiler:In the end, Oliver claims he hated Felix and the Cattons the whole time. Whether this is fully truthful is ambiguous]].

* JustIgnoreIt: The Cattons try to have a normal meal [[spoiler:even though Felix, their beloved son, had died literally hours earlier. Sir James and Elspeth both make frantic small talk as the shell-shocked children try to hold in their tears.]]

** After insisting that he's going to be Oliver's only friend, Michael screams at Oliver to give him a sum to compute, establishing him as friend that no one would want.

* MeetCute: A platonic version - Oliver first runs into Felix, whose bike has gotten a flat on the side of the road, and offers his own bike so Felix can get to class. [[spoiler:He orchestrated it.]]
* MythicalMotifs: Vampires, to the point the creators consider it a vampire movie even without any supernatural elements. The movie's aesthetics is heavily influenced by vampire movies and their gothic atmosphere. Oliver calls himself a vampire when [[spoiler:eating out Venetia during her period]], and one can see it as a story of [[spoiler:Oliver sucking the Cattons dry over the course of the years like a vampire feeding on them, as well as being a parasitic being in their lives]].

* OnceMoreWithClarity: [[spoiler:After the reveal of Oliver's true nature, we flash back to see him orchestrate just about every part of the plot, including sabotaging Felix's bicycle, hiding the money in his wallet when he's short for paying for drinks, and leaving razor blades by Venetia in the bath.]]

** At the end of the film, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Oliver has been manipulating virtually everything that's been going on, from Felix getting a flat tire to the many unfortunate accidents befalling the Cattons]].

* StealthInsult: Farleigh summons Oliver to karaoke "Rent" from the Pet Shop Boys in front of a whole party. The lyrics are from the point of view of a sycophantic gold digger, turning Oliver's performance into an inadvertent confession.

* UnrequitedLoveLastsForever: A CentralTheme.

** Oliver denies being in love with Felix but there are a lot of suggestions that he was, not least [[spoiler:him having sex with Felix's freshly-dug grave.]] When he meets Elspeth again after a decade, he admits to not having moved on from Felix or Oxford.
* WhamLine:
** Near the end of Oliver's movie-long explanation of his relationship with Felix [[spoiler: to Elspeth]]:
-->[[spoiler: After all those tragic accidents. But then...[[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident are there ever]] ''[[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident really]]'' [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident any accidents?]]]]
** A less extreme one, but when we finally meet Oliver's mother, she casually says [[spoiler: "your dad will be so happy to see you", after Oliver told Felix his father died a year ago.]]
* WhamShot: Venetia gives Oliver quite the dressing down while taking a bath the night of [[spoiler: Felix’s funeral. Cut to Venetia in the bathtub filled with her blood.]]

** Oliver uses [[spoiler:giving him a handjob]] to frame Farleigh for apparently stealing jewelry and gets him banished.
** Oliver plants drugs in Farleigh's room in order to imply that [[spoiler: Felix's death is his fault and result in him being banished from Saltburn]].

* FrameUp: Oliver plants drugs in Farleigh's room in order to imply that [[spoiler: Felix's death is his fault and result in him being banished from Saltburn]].

* {{Fauxshadowing}}: Characters separately imply that Oliver will regret his "friendship" with Felix. Michael Garvey explicitly tells him that Felix will get bored of him, implying that Felix will do something bad to Oliver, and Venetia tells him that Felix likes his new "toys" and doesn't want to share them. [[spoiler:The film seems to be building towards a confrontation between the two that will end with Felix impulsively rejecting Oliver for superficial reasons, but in fact, Felix is not only completely justified in his reasoning for rejecting Oliver's love confession but is pretty clearly the innocent one in the situation. Oliver has engineered the entire friendship the two of them share, and manipulated Felix and his family for months.]]

* BourgeoisBohemian: Elspeth claims that she was a lesbian for some time and has no problems with homosexuality. She is also a former model and clams to have hung out with a variety of Britpop bands, to the point that people thought Pulp's "Common People" was about her. Her son Felix is not nearly the class-focused snob as his other blueblood friends, defending Oliver for being a "scholarship kid."

* UnrequitedLoveLastsForever: The don of Oxford is still smitten with the memory of Farleigh's mother, the sister of Sir James. He also still has an inferiority complex about it, admitting that he admired her from a distance and asking Farleigh not to mention him to her. This helps establish the ocean of social distance between commoners like Oliver and the {{Blue Blood}}ed Cattons.

* UnrequitedLoveLastsForever: The don of Oxford is still smitten with the memory of Farleigh's mother, the sister of Sir James. He also still has an inferiority complex about it, admitting that he admired her from a distance and asking Farleigh not to mention him to her. This helps establish the ocean of social distance between commoners like Oliver and the {{Blue Blood}}ed Cottons.

** We also never learn what happens to Michael after Oliver ditches him to hang out with Felix.

* MythicalMotif: Vampires, to the point the creators consider it a vampire movie even without any supernatural elements. The movie's aesthetics is heavily influenced by vampire movies and their gothic atmosphere. Oliver calls himself a vampire when [[spoiler:eating out Venetia during her period]], and one can see it as a story of [[spoiler:Oliver sucking the Cattons dry over the course of the years like a vampire feeding on them, as well as being a parasitic being in their lives]].