If your 2023 holiday season was bombarded with thoughts about Saltburn, I totally understand. Saltburn came out on Prime Video on Dec. 22, leaving many to watch the film at home with their families or friends in celebration of the holiday season. If you’ve scrolled on TikTok these last few weeks, chances are you’ve probably come across fan edits of Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi, videos with the song “Murder On The Dancefloor” playing, or fan reactions videos to one very infamous scene in the movie.
Chances are you probably heard about Saltburn’s bathtub scene way before the film actually dropped on Prime. Critics and fans have been talking about this scene ever since the film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, but now that Saltburn has arrived on streaming platforms, it’s slowly taking TikTok by storm. Spoiler Warning: Spoilers for Saltburn follow.
In Saltburn, we’re introduced to Oliver Quick and Felix Catton as they begin a shared summer together at Felix’s family estate. Oliver, who’s new to this world of excess and aristocracy, finds himself desiring to be like Felix and wanting to be around him at all costs.
Oliver and Felix share a bathroom throughout their summer vacation, which becomes a crucial part of the story. During their stay, Oliver watches Felix masturbate in the bathtub secretly. Unaware of this happening, Felix leaves the bathroom and Oliver enters not long after, where he licks the drain of the bathtub.
Of course, after watching the bathtub scene, viewers shared their reactions on social media. Many watchers were shocked by the scene, while others found themselves loving it as they watched it for the first time. Since it was the holiday season, many filmed reaction videos with their friends and family.
During an interview with Stream Wars, Elordi spoke about his excitement to film the bathtub scene when he read the script for the first time. “I was excited to film that scene, because you don’t really see things like that in a lot of mainstream movies,” said Elordi. Elordi also talked about the audience’s reactions to the film, and how “everybody was engaged and sort of gasping at the screen and yelling at the screen.”
Of course, many fans who loved the scene should feel validated that the director of Saltburn, Emerald Fennell, also loved the scene. Fennell told People Magazine that the scene was “the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Although Saltburn has many different talking points, it’s clear that the bathtub scene is one of the most talked about moments in recent pop culture history and was a great way to close out 2023.