How the Last 7 Minutes RUIN Saltburn

Was Saltburn Ending's FANTASTIC or too Far-Fetched??? I know I'm negative on it in this video, but I really want to hear why people do or don't agree. Let me know!

Are the last 7 minutes really a twist? The fact that everyone dies immediately after some kind of intense, call out style conversation with Oliver makes it pretty obvious they’re being killed 🤷🏻‍♂️

I feel like the movie does give us glimpses into Oliver's disdain towards Felix. That scene where Felix and Oliver were hanging out in Felix's dorm room is what comes to mind. To me, this scene when I first watched it felt a little out of nowhere. Now thinking back, I think Oliver showing disgust at how lazy Felix is in cleaning up after himself and the smell of the room bothers him so much because it speaks to how accustomed Felix is in not having to clean up after himself. Also the body language in the scene. Oliver seems to grow more annoyed looking at Felix all sprawled out on the floor, languidly unbothered by the mess growing around him. Just how I saw it, anyway

What’s weird is that this movie was so REAL except for Oliver’s characterisation. I went to Oxford (recent graduate) and the first half hour of the movie was really, really jarring and uncanny to me because it was literally exactly what my Oxford experience was like. It didn’t help that most of the scenes were filmed in my college and in my favourite spots, literally down to my favourite tree stump 😭 But I KNEW (still know) people like Felix and Farleigh at Oxford. They were real characters. On the other hand, Oliver never seemed real. His character didn’t entirely make sense, it was so inconsistent.

Psychopaths know that they need to mask their tendencies, but they need someone to know that they have masterfully planned and executed a plot. The more sinister the better. This is why it was such a great idea that the writer had the first person Oliver met at college tell him that he's a genius. And then he needed to prove that he was a genius, but when Oscar wouldn't give him a sum he yelled at the top of his lungs to give him a sum so that he could prove himself a genius. This goes to show that geniuses also need people to know that they are a genius. The exposition at the end of the movie was Oliver proving to us that he's a genius. We started the movie with a man needing to prove he was a genius and ended it with the protagonist proving to his audience that he is a genius - in his mind. After all just because you can multiply quickly doesn't mean you're a genius. And now I think I've said the word "genius" enough times to prove that I am not one. 😆

I loved the ending. Oliver wanted to possess the whole family, and in the end, he did (stones and all)

the story isn't trying to be a "eat the rich" class commentary, it's just a twisted mindfuck tale about desire, power & wealth

Did they not do an autopsy on Elspeth? Oliver was the only one with her at the end and her breathing tube was extubated, leading to her death. She dies and he inherits everything because she signed it off before her death. It’s easy to determine foul play.

Had oliver just married felix's mom and got the estate through marriage would have made the ending more believable. Her just signing it away was absurd.

Had he not confessed his crimes to Elspeth on her deathbed. Had he merely said that he hated them all but couldn´t keep away from them, it would´ve been perfect. The audience would been forced to project themselves into the story, and some would condemn him while others would say just because he hated them doesn´t mean anything concrete: some people hate the environment they live in while still benefiting from it.

The lack of ambiguity in the end ruined it for me, too. The second big twist at the end didn't work for me for another, different reason. I was only surprised by the first twist that he misrepresented his family background. The final twist that he was manipulating the family was obvious to me from the moment he gave his little veiled confession to Elsbeth when he was laying into Pamela to get the family to trust him. He was obviously scheming and shmoozing. The final twist montage that reveals every little detail just felt condescending like it was overly impressed with itself and was begging me to be impressed too. I respect ambition. I give a but of a free pass to anything that tries to swing for the fences even if it doesn't always land. What i don't like is when something is up its own backside, and Saltburn absolutely was. The ending made it feel like everything leading up to it was more concerned with using cheap shock value to get people talking (which seems to have worked) instead of concerned with telling a nuanced story that's trying to make the audience to speculate and ask questions. Not everything needs clean cut answers, and the fact that the ending feot the need to give answers to what already seemed obvious through context clues suggests to me that the storyteller doesn't trust that the audience is capable of thinking and figuring things out for themselves. Subtlety is a virtue, and while I'm not averse to purposeful and well executed shock value, the ending's complete lack of subtelty just felt a bit cheap.

Towards the middle I realized we are actually watching the villain this whole time. So the ending wasnt surprising to me. It was just confirming to me he really is the villain.

My theory is that Emerald Fennel wanted to create an anti-establishment “eat the rich” type of narrative, but she doesn’t know how to write middle class people. Her upper class characters were incredible, but I didn’t relate to Ollie at any point.

The way I understood this movie is he never actually planned taking the manor for himself. He planned creating a friendship with Felix and nothing else. He was genuinely obsessed with him & being his BBF. Once Felix found out it was all planned and manipulated and that he'd never get his friendship again, that moment in the maze is when Oliver changed his plans.

I thought him doing the grave would have been a better and more heartbreaking ending but the ending we got was at least fun and crazy.

I believe Elspeth would be interested in the tragic details of this poor, poor rich family, even if it were her own. A little gossip on the way out. And I think Ollie honors that.

I like to believe that Oliver is completely unreliable and just imagines in retrospect that he masterminded everything. 😂

I agree with your ending line of “I intend to take care of Saltburn” and maybe the funeral but also people are saying drop the flashback and keep the dance sequence and I totally agree. I thought Venetia dying in that same bath tub immediately after we see them speaking was all but confirmation that Ollie was doing the killing trying to become the defacto heir. Even the cut to elspeth in a coma was fine confirmation that he was behind everything.

I think it's worth noting that Emerald Fennel has explicitly stated that Oliver was NOT a mustache twirling villain who planned it all from the jump. She has said he has acted on several desires in the moment, which have escalated to the next thing and the next thing and the next. Each time he HAS been manipulative and twisted a particular outcome, but they are individual incidents that escalate. NOT somehow Oliver wanting Saltburn from the start. I would even go as far to say that he only really starts wanting Saltburn when Farleigh rubs it in that this is "his house".

I want to point something very specific out. During Oliver’s reaction to Pamala’s death, you can subtly see him smile. It’s a subtle twitch of the mouth, yet clearly an expression of happiness.