Saltburn is a drama-thriller that depicts an outcast, middle class boy who fakes being poor to grab the attention of a popular, well-liked boy, Oliver. Oliver takes pity on him and invites him to spend the summer at his family’s country estate, Saltburn where Oliver meets Felix’s family, his American cousin Farleigh, his bland father Sir James, his blasphemous mother Elsbeth, his faux-edgy sister Venetia, and their pitiful family friend Pamela. The family’s relationship with Oliver goes back and forth between mutualistic and parasitic.
The protagonist, Oliver Quick, is a social outcast just starting his first year at Oxford University. Oliver’s demeanor is off-putting to the other students, the way he dresses with no style, the way he awkwardly stands and lurks like a ghost. He is unliked and unnoticed by the majority of the class and only has one friend who is also an outcast. He meets Felix, an attractive, wealthy posh boy who seems to be liked by everyone. To gain a moment alone with him, Oliver purposefully deflates his bike tire. Oliver rides by Felix when he’s having trouble with his tire and offers him his bike, Felix thanks him and moves on, this is Oliver’s in with the aristocrats. Later at the pub Felix calls Oliver over to meet his friends, when it is Oliver’s turn to pay for a round of beer, he fakes having no money to the bartender until Felix comes up and offers him money to pay with.
Oliver observes how Farleigh interacts with their tutor, how after his tutor confesses to stalking Farleigh’s mother from afar when they were in university, Farleigh takes interest in the professor and the two start to bond over memories about his mother while Oliver is stuck isolated. Oliver notices how Farleigh gains interest in the professor after the unusual confession, this is when he realizes Farleigh is almost enchanted by how pathetic the professor is; seeing his desperation for his mothers attention gains Farleighs interest, like watching a dog walk on its hind legs. This is when it clicks that if Oliver wants to make it into high class, he has to be their dancing monkey, their charity case. He can’t just be some upper-middle class outcast, that would be too weird. It would mean Oliver is the problem, something he can’t bear to admit to himself. Understanding this, Oliver fakes having no money at the pub until Felix offers to pay, creating a false image in Felix’s head that he’s Oliver’s lifeline. Felix then befriends Oliver, wanting to learn more about him, about his pain. To appeal to Felix, or his aristocratic savior complex, Oliver lies about his family and upbringing, stating he is dirt poor, an only child, and his parents are both intense drug addicts.
When Oliver and Felix are hanging out in Felix’s room, Oliver goes into a cleaning frenzy and says that only rich people leave a mess the same way Felix does. Angered by this, Felix asks Oliver to leave and says he’ll text him. Oliver waits for a text message. With none to come, he heads to the pub to find Felix, Farleigh and other friends all together drinking. Oliver watches them from afar before leaving and heading back to his dorm where he gets drunk with their excluded friend Annabelle and tries to sleep with her but ultimately fails. The next morning Oliver receives a call from his mom. He shows up at Felix’s door and tells him his father died. Felix feeling nothing but pity for him invites him in and tries to comfort him by writing his father’s name on a rock and tossing it in the river, a Catton family tradition as Felix states. This is the first instance where Oliver feels he is a part of the high class, where he is a Catton.
Later, Felix’s snobbish friend admits that she can’t invite Oliver as he doesn’t fit into the crowd, Oliver overhearing this follows them to India’s room where he watches Felix and India hook-up from a window. As if he’s imagining himself as Felix, watching the first betrayal he’d experience.
Arriving at Saltburn, Oliver meets the Catton family and their friend Pamela, who is staying with family since she’s had a “pitiful year” and has yet to land on her feet. When Oliver walks into the family room to meet all of them, Elsbeth sends Pamela to get tea. This depicts how the family is bored of Pamela’s woeful life and want some new entertainment, Oliver. Elsbeth asks Oliver to tell her all the gory details about his parents, his fathers death, his mother’s addiction, all as a way for her to get off to his pain. That’s the thing about the Catton family, in all scenes together, they always keep the conversation light. Even when discussing family pain, even after death, they refuse to discuss anything tragic. So they leech off of those struggling, Pamela, Oliver, previous friends of Felix’s, it’s the only way they can feel any sort of emotion. To almost live vicariously through the struggles of people in poverty, people less fortunate. At the first dinner with everyone, Elsbeth strongly hints to Pamela that it’s her time to leave, the catton’s all agree seeing as they have Oliver as her less fortunate replacement. Even after Pamela dies a few weeks later, the family can’t be bothered, she becomes a stranger to them, a magnificent act seen one too many times.
On Oliver’s birthday, Felix takes him on a surprise trip to visit his mother’s place. Upon arrival Oliver’s facade begins to crack until Felix realizes he isn’t poor, he’s not an only child, his parents are drug addicts or dealers, and that Oliver’s been lying the entire time. Upon arriving at Saltburn, Felix suggests Oliver leave after his birthday party tonight. At the party, Oliver follows Felix after he goes off to hook-up with a girl at the statue in the center of the maze where he professes his love to Felix who does not return his feelings. When Felix does not return his feelings, Oliver hands him a bottle of champagne laced with poison while he pretends to throw up, allowing Felix time to drink the poison. In the morning, everyone awakes to find Felix dead in the maze. With Felix dead, Elsbeth does not want to let Oliver go as he’s her only connection to Felix, this allows Oliver to almost replace Felix in a way, it allows him to live in the riches he’s always desired. Later that night, Venetia confronts him and degrades him, letting Oliver know that she can see right through him, and see that all he wants is to be one of them. Understanding that Venetia is a danger to his plan, he places razors next to her and slowly brings her to the brink of a complete mental break. The next morning, the family finds Venetia dead in the bathtub, surrounded by her blood. Following this, Elsbeth refuses to have Oliver leave. He is her only child now, a surrogate child but still the only one left, and the only one who can provide comfort and relief to her. However, Sir James bribes him as a way to leave. As he exits the estate, the Saltburn employees are all watching him leave, to them he is only a parasite. Taking everything and giving nothing.
Speedrun to 2022, Sir James has passed and Elsbeth finds Oliver at a cafe, where he’s pretending to write. Gullible as ever, she invites him to visit Saltburn, seeing as the estate is quite lonely without everyone and she needs his company, and he’s never in any position to pass on living like an aristocrat. Elsbeth falls sick. While she’s in a comatose state, kept alive by a breathing tube, Oliver admits to everything he’s done, killing Felix, framing Farleigh, bringing Venetia to suicide. He repeats that he wasn’t in love with Felix. He’s either in denial about his intense love for Felix, or telling that he was more obsessed with Felix, that he wasn’t in love but rather that he wanted to be everything he was. That he wanted to be him, have his wealth, be well-liked, live the way he could. He wanted to be loved the way Felix was loved. He then rips the breathing tube out of Elsbeth, leaving him the sole heir to Saltburn. Everything he ever dreamed of. Oliver, the parasite, finally leeched everyone dry, until he was the last one standing.
Oliver and the Catton family illustrate mutualism and parasitism throughout the film. Though it can be argued that it’s almost all mutualism from Oliver’s point of view, seeing as he is the last one standing. The Catton family is a typical generational rich family, starved of work, pain, drive. Oliver provides that to them, a way to connect with the real world, a way to live through pain, struggle, and misfortune, without the trouble of getting hurt themselves. And they provide Oliver with luxury, or the false illusion of luxury. The big house, the brand name clothes, fancy meals, but no emotional connections with people. Just a numbness deep in their soul, covered with riches and jewels. Oliver provides the Catton family a way to feel, a bridge to experience deep seated emotions, the Catton family provides Oliver with a luxury to experience all of that in. The two go back and forth, not always equal with each other, until one beats out the other. Rather than rid Oliver the same way they rid Pamela when they got bored, he beats them at their own game, he becomes the king, everything he has always desired.