Saltburn ending explained: What happened to Felix?

The film revolves around Oliver (Barry Keoghan), a middle-class Oxford student who is taken under the wing of his fellow classmate (Jacob Elordi), Felix, and invited to stay at his family estate, Saltburn, over the summer.

Saltburn has also shocked viewers with its twisted finale, which finally reveals what Oliver's (Barry Keoghan) true intentions have been from the very beginning.

So, what happens to Oliver and Felix and the rest of the latter's family in Saltburn, including Elsbeth, Pamela and Farleigh? And what does it all mean?

With Saltburn now available to stream on Prime Video, read on for a recap and explanation of Saltburn's bizarre ending.

Saltburn ending explained: What is the twist?

The relationship between Felix and Oliver soon starts to go sour in Saltburn, but the first big twist happens when Felix works out that Oliver is not quite who he has been claiming to be.

Rather than being the poor only child of a drug-addict mother and dead father, it transpires that he is from a comfortable middle-class family – with Felix driving his friend to visit them for his birthday.

Oliver is clearly not happy that his deception has been discovered, and things next come to a head that night at a decadent Midsummer Night's Dream-themed birthday party that the Catton family has decided to hold for Oliver at the estate.

What really happened to Felix in Saltburn?

During the revelry, Felix follows Oliver into a maze and attempts to mend their friendship to no avail, before Felix's dead body is found in the maze the next morning.

While it isn’t immediately clear how Felix died, it is later revealed that Oliver spiked the bottle of champagne he gave to Felix when they were arguing in the maze.

What happened to Pamela in Saltburn?

Elspeth’s friend 'Poor Dear' Pamela is staying at Saltburn when Oliver first arrives, but Elspeth eventually insinuates that she has outstayed her welcome.

Some time after Pamela leaves, the Cattons learn that she has died under mysterious circumstances.

While her death is ruled an apparent suicide, Elspeth had previously mentioned that Pamela was staying with them because she was hiding from a Russian billionaire she had crossed paths with in rehab.

It’s therefore possible that he had something to do with Pamela's death, but this isn't explored further in the film.

What happened to Farleigh in Saltburn?

After a rather bizarre scene in which Oliver essentially has sex with Felix's grave, we see the Catton family in mourning, and Felix's cousin Farleigh questions why Oliver is still staying at Saltburn.

However, Oliver manages to turn things in his favour by suggesting that Farleigh's drug habit had contributed to Felix's death, and so it is instead Farleigh who is sent away from the estate, with Oliver staying on.

We never see Farleigh again after he is ostracised from the family, and his fate is left up in the air at the end of the film.

What happened to Venetia in Saltburn?

While Elsbeth is now rather attached to Oliver, Venetia has worked out that he isn't who he seems, and so confronts him about his role in Felix's death, only for her to also turn up dead the next morning – appearing to have died by suicide in the bathtub.

Although it is initially unclear whether Oliver is responsible for her death, at the film’s big reveal, we see Oliver putting razor blades on the edge of the bath.

While it’s suggested that Oliver convinced Venetia to end her life, it’s also possible he drugged and killed her himself.

What did Oliver do to Elsbeth in Saltburn?

Eventually, Oliver leaves the estate after receiving a large payout from James, and the action soon jumps forward to some time later, when Elsbeth runs into him in a coffee shop.

She explains that since that summer at Saltburn, James has passed away, and she asks him to return to the estate to keep her company. Soon afterwards, she mysteriously falls ill and tells Oliver that she will be leaving everything – including the estate – to him.

In case you hadn't worked it out by now, Oliver then explains to Elsbeth that he had been behind everything from the very beginning, having been deeply resentful of Felix and the family in general.

He'd engineered his first meeting with Felix and manipulated things so that he'd feel sorry for him and invite him to Saltburn in the first place, before killing off each family member by turn – poisoning Felix, providing Venetia with a razor when she was at her lowest ebb and, now, finally suffocating Elsbeth.

What happened to Duncan in Saltburn?

Saltburn’s menacing Butler, Duncan (Paul Rhys), is shown to be still working at the estate at the end of the film.

While he can't be pleased by the demise of his long-standing employers, this isn't really explored.

Speaking about how the ending doesn’t tie up all loose ends, Fennell previously told GQ: “It’s not going to be, like, the forever victory. It’s sort of a depressing victory, even for Oliver. But in that moment, we need to love him. I like the audience to be complicit.”

What does the ending of Saltburn mean?

The film ends with Oliver dancing naked around Saltburn to Sophie Ellis-Bextor's Murder on the Dancefloor – now the sole owner of the estate.

Talking about what the final scene in the film means, director Fennell has explained she wanted it to make the audience sympathetic to Oliver.

She previously told TheWrap: "My preoccupation is making an audience complicit, making them laugh when they shouldn't maybe be laughing, making them squirm or feel complicated feelings."

She continued: "The end needed to have that thing where you could not help but to be on Oliver's side."

Saltburn is streaming on Amazon Prime Video now. Check out more of our Film and Drama coverage, or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.

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