Warning: Spoilers ahead for Saltburn. It’s easily one of the most divisive movies to be released this year. If you’ve watched it and still have questions (or you’re Googling before it’s over), the question on everyone’s lips is how did Felix die in Saltburn. Jacob Elordi takes on the role of the aloof, privileged hot boy; Barry Keoghan plays Oliver Quick, whose infatuation with Felix consumes him (and, as the film would have it, he consumes it).
Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, Oliver finds himself drawn into the world of the charming aristocrat Felix, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family’s sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten. “It gets under your skin,” director Emerald Fennell told Variety.
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“We just want to make something that makes people feel something. I want to make stuff that you go and sit in a dark room full of strangers and you don’t know what you’re going to feel and you don’t know where you’re going to be probed. And everyone has a different take on it. Some people are screaming, some people are squealing, Some people are turned on, some people are freaked out and some are furious,” . “Some people don’t really care. What you want is for people to spill out into the street and want to go and have a drink and talk about it.”
It’s a twisted, modern Gothic tale about priviledge and desire that ends in tragedy for some, and dancing nude for another. With that said, and if you’re not clear on how the film ends, here’s how Felix died in Saltburn.
How did Felix die in Saltburn?
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Saltburn. How did Felix die in Saltburn? After he confronts Oliver over his lies—that his dad isn’t dead from drugs and his mother isn’t an alcoholic—he dies from a suspected drug overdose. But it’s later revealed that Oliver poisoned him.
Let’s backtrack a bit. Oliver develops an unhealthy obsession with Felix after encountering him at Oxford. Felix is cool and effortless, as is everyone in his orbit. Oliver, meanwhile, is dowdy and shy—an unpopular dork drawn to Felix’s aura.
In an effort to garner attention and sympathy, Oliver tells Felix his father is dead and his mother is a hopeless drug addict. Oliver says he’ll never go home again and Felix invites him to vacation with him at his family estate, Saltburn. A few days into his visit, Felix’s family offers to throw Oliver an elaborate birthday party, but the afternoon before the bash, Felix drives Oliver to his mother’s house to make amends with her.
Upon discovering Oliver’s deception—that his family home is very wholesome and normal—Felix tells Oliver that he wants nothing to do with him anymore and casts him out. Drunkenly, Oliver follows Felix into the property’s hedge maze to find him having sex with someone in the center. They argue. Felix tells Oliver to stay away from him. “I just gave you what you wanted, like everyone else does,” begs Oliver. “Everyone puts on a show for Felix. So I’m sorry my performance wasn’t good enough. … I just need you to understand how much I f—ing love you.”
“You make my blood run cold,” Felix tells him and in that moment, it’s clear Oliver has decided that if he can’t have Felix, no one can. He hands him a bottle of champagne, Felix takes a huge swig, and the following morning, there’s a panic in the property because Felix can’t be found. A scream rings out and we see that Felix’s body has been discovered at the center of the maze.
His death is ruled an accidental overdose. In a particularly tense scene, the family eat lunch around the dining table as the police and coroner collect Felix’s body. “What are you still doing here?” Felix’s cousin Farleigh asks through tears. “Does no one else find it weird?” To which Oliver replies coldly: “I wouldn’t throw stones if I were you, Farleigh. … I would feel guilty, too, if I was the one racking up lines the night someone died,” leading the family to believe Farleigh was responsible for Felix’s death.
Elordi told Collider that Felix has no idea what Oliver is capable of at that point in time. “No, I think his blood has just turned to ice. I think he’s just terrified of someone like that. But I don’t think he can see what’s coming, no.”
Keoghan told Variety that despite his sinister actions, by eliminating the family one by one and taking Saltburn for himself, audiences generally continue to side with Oliver. “They do! It’s kind of like that character Dexter, isn’t it? I know Emerald really roots for him and I was rooting for him. All the choices I made as Oliver, I didn’t seem them as sociopathic or wrong. Maybe that’s so I can justify a way of doing them. It’s when you step back as an audience member and go, “Okay, he probably is f*cked up in the head.” But a genius!”
Saltburn is available to stream on Prime Video.
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