Warning: This post contains spoilers for "Saltburn."
"Saltburn," the comedy thriller that came out in late 2023, is still top of mind for many people — one reason being its twisted ending.
The film, written and directed by Oscar winner Emerald Fennell, explores the cross-class friendship between Oliver (Barry Keoghan) and Felix (Jacob Elordi) that leads to intense relationships, power dynamics and surprising revelations, most occurring in the Saltburn mansion belonging to Felix’s extremely wealthy family.
The film has many shocking, stimulating scenes, evoking disgust for some and exciting for others — and the last act of the movie is no exception. The last 20 minutes of the film include multiple deaths, a plot twist and a nude dance scene.
Read on for a breakdown on the surprising final moments of "Saltburn."
How does 'Saltburn' end?
Felix and Oliver first start developing a friendship while studying at Oxford. Oliver appears to be struggling financially, and he shares intimate details with Felix about his parents’ alleged struggle with addiction. But toward the end of the film, Felix realizes Oliver was lying all along.
Once Felix learns the truth on the day of Oliver’s birthday party at Saltburn, he feels betrayed and asks Oliver to leave after the event. As the night goes on, Felix and Oliver meet at the maze on the estate where they have a subtle argument that ends with Oliver handing Felix a bottle of champagne and leaving him in the maze. The next day, Felix is found dead.
Felix’s sister Venetia dies shortly after her brother, followed by their dad Sir James' death.
The last to die is their mom Elspeth — but not before she rekindled her relationship with Oliver after running into him at a coffee shop. Elspeth grows closer to Oliver as he fills the void left by Felix's and Venetia's deaths. As Elspeth gets sick, she signs over Saltburn in Oliver’s name.
Elspeth eventually falls into a coma, and it is then revealed that Oliver has been narrating the events of the film from the room in which Elspeth lays in a hospital bed.
A flashback montage then shows how Oliver had meticulously planned most of these tragedies so he could inherit Saltburn: Felix drank from the champagne that Oliver gave him, which Oliver had poisoned; Venetia committed suicide after Oliver left razors on the side of her bathtub, well aware of her mental state as she grieved the loss of her brother; Oliver suffocates Elspeth by removing her ventilator after he’s done explaining how his plan had been carried out.
The montage also reveals that Oliver slashed Felix's bike tires before they officially met, which led to Felix asking Oliver for help when he drove by.
There are some details that are not clear if Oliver planned, such as if he caused Elspeth’s sickness in the first place. It also remains unclear if Oliver had any involvement in Sir James’ death.
The last scene follows Oliver around the Saltburn mansion, dancing completely naked to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s 2001 hit “Murder on the Dance Floor.” This moment mirrors an earlier scene in the film when Felix gave Oliver a tour around the estate when he first arrived.
Keoghan told Entertainment Weekly that the dance number “totally felt right" for his character.
“It’s ownership. This is my place. It’s full confidence in, ‘I can do what I want in this manor. I can strip to my barest and waltz around because this is mine.’ Yeah... it was fun,” Keoghan said.
For Fennell, it was important that this final scene was a nude dance scene for what it represented to Oliver.
“A walkthrough didn’t have that post-coital triumph. If we all did our job correctly, you are on Oliver’s side,” Fennell tells Entertainment Weekly. “You don’t care what he does, you want him to do it. You are both completely repulsed and sort of on his side. It’s that kind of dance with the devil. It’s like, ‘F---. Okay, let’s go.’ And so at the end, it needed to have a triumph, a post-coital win, a desecration.”
"Saltburn" is now streaming on Prime Video.