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Saltburn

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TVTItem
 Saltburn
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Saltburn
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Saltburn
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Saltburn is a 2023 black comedy psychological thriller film written and directed by Emerald Fennell; it is Fennell's second film following 2020's Promising Young Woman.It's 2006, and Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is a working-class student out of place at Oxford except for his Only Friend, Michael Gavey (Ewan Mitchell). When the wealthy and popular Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) suggests that Oliver come to his family estate, Saltburn, for the summer, he jumps at the opportunity. However, when he meets Felix's parents, Elspeth (Rosamund Pike) and Sir James (Richard E. Grant), Oliver enters a mysterious and treacherous world of privilege and obsession.The supporting cast includes Archie Madekwe, Alison Oliver, Carey Mulligan and Paul Rhys.The film premiered at Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2023, and was released in the UK on November 16. It then had a limited theatrical release in the US on November 24 before opening wide on December 1.Previews: teaser trailer, full trailer.
 Saltburn
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2024-02-01T19:15:55Z
 Saltburn
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2024-02-01T19:15:55Z
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Dropped link to HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows: Not a Feature - ITEM
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Dropped link to StealthInsult: Not a Feature - ITEM
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Dropped link to TheSmiths: Not a Feature - IGNORE
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Dropped link to spiderman: Not a Feature - ITEM
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DBTropes
 Saltburn / int_117d2e1f
type
Fauxshadowing
 Saltburn / int_117d2e1f
comment
Fauxshadowing: Characters separately imply that Oliver will regret his "friendship" with Felix. Michael Garvey explicitly tells him that Felix will get bored of him, implying that Felix will do something bad to Oliver, and Venetia tells him that Felix likes his new "toys" and doesn't want to share them. The film seems to be building towards a confrontation between the two that will end with Felix impulsively rejecting Oliver for superficial reasons, but in fact, Felix is not only completely justified in his reasoning for rejecting Oliver's love confession but is pretty clearly the innocent one in the situation. Oliver has engineered the entire friendship the two of them share, and manipulated Felix and his family for months. Felix tells Oliver that Duncan will go through his stuff and report to Elspeth. Oliver is clearly unnerved, and it seems to be suggesting that either Elspeth or Duncan are extremely sinister characters, or that one or both will find something Oliver doesn't want them to. This never happens, and Elspeth turns out to be a surprisingly sympathetic character.
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Saltburn / int_117d2e1f
 Saltburn / int_1c21e3fb
type
The Place
 Saltburn / int_1c21e3fb
comment
The Place: The film is primarily set at Saltburn, the Cattons' sprawling family estate.
 Saltburn / int_1c21e3fb
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Saltburn / int_1c21e3fb
 Saltburn / int_1f6983f7
type
Ambiguous Situation
 Saltburn / int_1f6983f7
comment
Ambiguous Situation: Just how much did Oliver genuinely care about the Cattons? A lot of his actions were definitely deceptive, but sometimes (such as with Felix's grave) he shows genuine emotion in ways that don't seem to benefit his plans. Did he ever consider Felix an actual friend, or more? What about Venetia or Elspeth? At the end, he claims to have always hated all of them, but of course, he's not exactly a reliable source.
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Saltburn / int_1f6983f7
 Saltburn / int_220c23cb
type
Condescending Compassion
 Saltburn / int_220c23cb
comment
Condescending Compassion: Most of the kindness the Cattons bestow upon their favored targets is laced with this, as Oliver and Pamela can attest.
 Saltburn / int_220c23cb
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Saltburn / int_220c23cb
 Saltburn / int_222969af
type
All There in the Script
 Saltburn / int_222969af
comment
All There in the Script: In the film, it's not clear if Duncan is still around at Saltburn when Oliver kills the now-disabled Elspeth and what (if any) repercussions there will be. The script makes it clear that Duncan is still there, hovering over Oliver, and suggests that Oliver will at least try to get rid of him, whether through sinister means or otherwise.
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Saltburn / int_222969af
 Saltburn / int_2801d7ca
type
School of No Studying
 Saltburn / int_2801d7ca
comment
School of No Studying: There's little to no mention of Oliver, Felix, or Farleigh studying even though they're at Oxford.
 Saltburn / int_2801d7ca
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Saltburn / int_2801d7ca
 Saltburn / int_2d363f63
type
Frame-Up
 Saltburn / int_2d363f63
comment
Frame-Up: Twice. Oliver gives Farleigh a handjob in his bed to steal his phone and frame him for apparently stealing dishes from Sir James, which gets him temporarily exiled. Oliver plants drugs in Farleigh's room in order to imply that Felix's death was his fault, resulting in him being permanently banished from Saltburn.
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Saltburn / int_2d363f63
 Saltburn / int_2e8441c9
type
The Bad Guy Wins
 Saltburn / int_2e8441c9
comment
The Bad Guy Wins: Oliver gets away with his role in destroying the entire Catton family and taking their estate for his own.
 Saltburn / int_2e8441c9
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1.0
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Saltburn / int_2e8441c9
 Saltburn / int_2f2f5b3f
type
Hedge Maze
 Saltburn / int_2f2f5b3f
comment
Hedge Maze: The Saltburn estate has a huge, labyrinthine maze, with a smaller version in the house itself. It's where Felix has his last conversation with Oliver, and later dies.
 Saltburn / int_2f2f5b3f
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Saltburn / int_2f2f5b3f
 Saltburn / int_347e35d6
type
Grim Up North
 Saltburn / int_347e35d6
comment
Grim Up North: Oliver comes from Liverpool, and is the orphaned child of abusive addicts. It's repeatedly Played for Laughs in that Elspeth and Pamela have no idea where Liverpool is, and everyone at Saltburn finds it pretty exotic. This seems to have been what Oliver was counting on, since while he is from Liverpool, he comes from a normal, middle-class, and loving family.
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Saltburn / int_347e35d6
 Saltburn / int_34dcfc96
type
Kick the Dog
 Saltburn / int_34dcfc96
comment
Kick the Dog: After insisting that he's going to be Oliver's only friend, Michael screams at Oliver to give him a sum to compute, establishing him as a friend that no one would want. The first thing Farleigh does in the film is sarcastically compliment Oliver's jacket.
 Saltburn / int_34dcfc96
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Saltburn / int_34dcfc96
 Saltburn / int_381855db
type
Five-Second Foreshadowing
 Saltburn / int_381855db
comment
Five-Second Foreshadowing: When we see Oliver's childhood house, it's a well-maintained two-storey home in a nice-looking neighborhood rather than the run-down rattrap he implied to Felix. As soon as Felix knocks on the door, we discover that Oliver was lying about growing up in wretched poverty.
 Saltburn / int_381855db
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Saltburn / int_381855db
 Saltburn / int_38d02d44
type
Batman Gambit
 Saltburn / int_38d02d44
comment
Batman Gambit: It turns out that Oliver was using a string of them to worm his way into the Cattons' good graces and pick them off one by one. A few examples include putting a nail in Felix's bike tire to engineer their Meet Cute and placing razor blades within sight of the traumatized and bathing Venetia to facilitate her Bath Suicide.
 Saltburn / int_38d02d44
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Saltburn / int_38d02d44
 Saltburn / int_3aec9e5e
type
Properly Paranoid
 Saltburn / int_3aec9e5e
comment
Properly Paranoid: Pamela worries constantly about her breakup with a ruthless Russian oligarch whose enemies tend to suffer mysterious accidents. Only a month or two after Saltburn, Pamela has died.
 Saltburn / int_3aec9e5e
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1.0
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Saltburn / int_3aec9e5e
 Saltburn / int_3cbb451b
type
Unrequited Love Lasts Forever
 Saltburn / int_3cbb451b
comment
Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: A Central Theme. Profess Ware is still smitten with the memory of Farleigh's mother, the sister of Sir James. He also still has an inferiority complex about it, admitting that he admired her from a distance and asking Farleigh not to mention him to her. Oliver denies being in love with Felix but there are a lot of suggestions that he was, not least him having sex with Felix's freshly-dug grave. When he meets Elspeth again after a decade, he admits to not having moved on from Felix or Oxford.
 Saltburn / int_3cbb451b
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Saltburn / int_3cbb451b
 Saltburn / int_45bdaa0e
type
Just Ignore It
 Saltburn / int_45bdaa0e
comment
Just Ignore It: The Cattons try to have a normal lunch even though Felix, their beloved son, had died literally hours earlier. Sir James and Elspeth both make frantic small talk as the shell-shocked children try to hold in their tears, and when Farleigh asks to be excused, unable to take it anymore and calling everyone out for acting as if nothing's happened, Sir James explodes at him and orders him to sit back down and continue eating.
 Saltburn / int_45bdaa0e
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Saltburn / int_45bdaa0e
 Saltburn / int_4756a7f
type
Bourgeois Bohemian
 Saltburn / int_4756a7f
comment
Bourgeois Bohemian: Elspeth claims that she was a lesbian for some time and has no problems with homosexuality. She is also a former model and claims to have hung out with a variety of Britpop bands, to the point that people thought Pulp's "Common People" was about her. Her son Felix is not nearly the class-focused snob as his other blue-blooded friends, defending Oliver for being a "scholarship kid." However, deconstructed by Felix, who also fetishizes Oliver's apparent poverty and picks him back up after dropping him after Oliver's father dies or, at least, after Oliver says his father died.
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Saltburn / int_4756a7f
 Saltburn / int_4814d132
type
Big Fancy House
 Saltburn / int_4814d132
comment
Big Fancy House: Saltburn is an enormous English estate with several bedrooms, sitting rooms, and libraries, an adjacent lake, and a massive hedge maze.
 Saltburn / int_4814d132
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Saltburn / int_4814d132
 Saltburn / int_49f20c6a
type
Gory Discretion Shot
 Saltburn / int_49f20c6a
comment
Gory Discretion Shot: Several character deaths that we understand to have been unpleasant (Felix from being poisoned, Venetia from suicide) are mostly kept offscreen, with the characters' bodies afterwards being shown briefly or implied. This contrasts with the averted case of Oliver killing Elspeth; him ripping her ventilator out of her throat and watching her convulse and asphyxiate is all shown onscreen.
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Saltburn / int_49f20c6a
 Saltburn / int_4af55b78
type
Credits Gag
 Saltburn / int_4af55b78
comment
Credits Gag: Carey Mulligan is credited in the end credits as "Poor Dear Pamela", as that's what Elspeth calls her.
 Saltburn / int_4af55b78
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 Saltburn / int_4af55b78
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Saltburn / int_4af55b78
 Saltburn / int_4db42cf3
type
Male Frontal Nudity
 Saltburn / int_4db42cf3
comment
Male Frontal Nudity: Oliver's nards are seen briefly as he cavorts through the empty house at the end.
 Saltburn / int_4db42cf3
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1.0
 Saltburn / int_4db42cf3
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Saltburn / int_4db42cf3
 Saltburn / int_4e11940e
type
Mythical Motifs
 Saltburn / int_4e11940e
comment
Mythical Motifs: Vampires, to the point that the creators consider it a vampire movie even without any supernatural elements. The movie's aesthetics is heavily influenced by vampire movies and their gothic atmosphere. Oliver calls himself a vampire when eating out Venetia during her period, there is a scene of his mouth drenched in blood in the bath later, and one can see it as a story of Oliver sucking the Cattons dry over the course of the years like a vampire feeding on them, as well as being a parasitic being in their lives.
 Saltburn / int_4e11940e
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Saltburn / int_4e11940e
 Saltburn / int_4e3d253b
type
Downer Ending
 Saltburn / int_4e3d253b
comment
Downer Ending: The entire Catton family is dead, most of them due to Oliver's machinations, and Oliver inherits all of Saltburn. Regardless of whose side the viewer is on, Oliver is also now alone once again thanks to his own doing.
 Saltburn / int_4e3d253b
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Saltburn / int_4e3d253b
 Saltburn / int_4e7c4536
type
Wham Line
 Saltburn / int_4e7c4536
comment
Wham Line: A less extreme one, but when we finally meet Oliver's mother, she casually says, "Your father's in the garden," after Oliver told Felix his father died a year ago. After Oliver's encounter with Venetia in the bathtub after Felix's death, the film cuts to him post-Time Skip, who reveals what became of her shortly before we see for ourselves. Near the end of Oliver's movie-long explanation of his relationship with Felix, one line (followed by the second example of Wham Shot below) reveals who exactly he's been talking to this entire time: Shortly after the above example, Oliver alludes to just how much of the film's events had been his own orchestrating before a Once More, with Clarity montage confirms it.
 Saltburn / int_4e7c4536
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Saltburn / int_4e7c4536
 Saltburn / int_4e7f703c
type
Wham Shot
 Saltburn / int_4e7f703c
comment
Wham Shot: After Oliver states that Venetia "couldn't live without" Felix after his death, the film cuts straight to Venetia laying motionless in the bathtub where Oliver left her, which is filled with her blood. The reveal that Oliver's movie-long commentary on the events of the film was actually him speaking to Elspeth, who's in the same room comatose and bedridden with illness.
 Saltburn / int_4e7f703c
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Saltburn / int_4e7f703c
 Saltburn / int_5679208c
type
No Bisexuals
 Saltburn / int_5679208c
comment
No Bisexuals: Played for Laughs with Elspeth (who is now married to Sir James, a man), who blurts out that she "was a lesbian at one stage" but gave it up because women were too wet for her liking.
 Saltburn / int_5679208c
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Saltburn / int_5679208c
 Saltburn / int_5f410c2c
type
Blood Is Squicker in Water
 Saltburn / int_5f410c2c
comment
Blood Is Squicker in Water: We don't see Venetia kill herself in the bathtub. At most, we see her body afterwards, with the fact that the water in the tub is now fully red being the main indicator as to what's happened.
 Saltburn / int_5f410c2c
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Saltburn / int_5f410c2c
 Saltburn / int_5fcb9ad1
type
Time Skip
 Saltburn / int_5fcb9ad1
comment
After Oliver's encounter with Venetia in the bathtub after Felix's death, the film cuts to him post-Time Skip, who reveals what became of her shortly before we see for ourselves.
 Saltburn / int_5fcb9ad1
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Saltburn / int_5fcb9ad1
 Saltburn / int_61c7d589
type
Bigger Is Better in Bed
 Saltburn / int_61c7d589
comment
Bigger Is Better in Bed: Oliver is implied to have an enormous penis; when the family watches him remove his shorts to join them in nude sunbathing, everyone is surprised and impressed. However, we do actually get a few glimpses at Oliver's penis in the end, and it's pretty normal.
 Saltburn / int_61c7d589
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 Saltburn / int_61c7d589
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 Saltburn
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Saltburn / int_61c7d589
 Saltburn / int_644eca71
type
Rich Bitch
 Saltburn / int_644eca71
comment
Rich Bitch: Lady Daphne. At the dinner party, she pointedly insists that follow dinner convention and speak to her first. She openly hates her husband, doesn't understand why Oliver thinks it's "nice" that she has children, and tells him that the purpose of school is that she doesn't have to see them or deal with them. When Oliver tries to start a new topic, she's already turned to another person and loudly asks him to "save" her from talking to Oliver.
 Saltburn / int_644eca71
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 Saltburn / int_644eca71
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 Saltburn
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Saltburn / int_644eca71
 Saltburn / int_649f5bec
type
Creepy Souvenir
 Saltburn / int_649f5bec
comment
Creepy Souvenir: After killing the entire Catton family, Oliver takes their memorial stones from the river and puts them in the living room, apparently just to gloat.
 Saltburn / int_649f5bec
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 Saltburn / int_649f5bec
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Saltburn / int_649f5bec
 Saltburn / int_6b2b3b59
type
The Reveal
 Saltburn / int_6b2b3b59
comment
The Reveal: Midway through the film, it's revealed that Oliver has been lying about his background. He's not the traumatized only child of two drug addicts but part of a very normal, middle-class family. At the end of the film, it's revealed that Oliver has been manipulating virtually everything that's been going on, from Felix getting a flat tire to the many unfortunate accidents that befall the Cattons.
 Saltburn / int_6b2b3b59
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Saltburn / int_6b2b3b59
 Saltburn / int_6b3c357e
type
Ivy League for Everyone
 Saltburn / int_6b3c357e
comment
Ivy League for Everyone: The UK-specific equivalent: Felix, Oliver, and Farleigh are all new students at Oxford, where Farleigh's mother apparently attended in the 1990s (alongside now-Oxford don, Professor Ware). Elspeth implies that she went to Central St. Martin's, which is a very prestigious art school, even if it's not quite Oxbridge.
 Saltburn / int_6b3c357e
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Saltburn / int_6b3c357e
 Saltburn / int_6d332aea
type
Driven to Suicide
 Saltburn / int_6d332aea
comment
Driven to Suicide: Pamela kills herself offscreen not long after being cast out of Saltburn. Venetia slashes her wrists offscreen (with razors thoughtfully provided by Oliver) after her brother's death; Oliver later states that she did so because she couldn't live without Felix. While Sir James' cause of death is left ambiguous, Elspeth remarks that she doesn't know "what took him so long" after Felix's death.
 Saltburn / int_6d332aea
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Saltburn / int_6d332aea
 Saltburn / int_6fed1f70
type
The Thing That Would Not Leave
 Saltburn / int_6fed1f70
comment
The Thing That Would Not Leave: Elspeth has grown bored of Pamela and passive-aggressively encourages her to leave. Shortly thereafter, she has her staff discreetly kick her out, saying that she can only drop so many hints. Oliver refuses Sir James' request that he leave Saltburn so that Elspeth can mourn properly, but Oliver refuses, claiming it wouldn't be in her best interest. Ultimately, Sir James bribes him to leave.
 Saltburn / int_6fed1f70
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Saltburn / int_6fed1f70
 Saltburn / int_71348a9b
type
Systematic Villain Takedown
 Saltburn / int_71348a9b
comment
Systematic Villain Takedown: Somewhat of an inversion — the characters that all take offence to Oliver or try to get rid of him are gradually taken out, though they are a variety of moral alignments. First, Oliver frames Farleigh for stealing and gets him thrown out of Saltburn; then he poisons Felix to death after Felix finds out he lied about his backstory; then, because he wasn't able to take Farleigh out permanently with the jewellery theft, he plants drugs in his room and blames him for Felix's death; then he leaves Venetia alone with a razor in deep grief, apparently knowing she'll slit her wrists; Sir James dies without any (apparent) intervention from Oliver, but he exiled Oliver from Saltburn; then Oliver suffocates Elspeth and presumably poisoned her in the first place to make her dependent on him.
 Saltburn / int_71348a9b
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Saltburn / int_71348a9b
 Saltburn / int_7374ab13
type
Once More, with Clarity
 Saltburn / int_7374ab13
comment
Shortly after the above example, Oliver alludes to just how much of the film's events had been his own orchestrating before a Once More, with Clarity montage confirms it.
 Saltburn / int_7374ab13
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 Saltburn / int_7374ab13
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Saltburn / int_7374ab13
 Saltburn / int_75d6bf40
type
Belligerent Sexual Tension
 Saltburn / int_75d6bf40
comment
Belligerent Sexual Tension: Oliver and Farleigh have a mutual dislike for one another from the very beginning. When Oliver offers his help to Farleigh, there is obvious sexual tension between them, though Farleigh immediately responds with a public Stealth Insult. Later, Oliver gives Farleigh a handjob on the condition that he "behave," and Farleigh accepts. However, this is also a part of Oliver's scheme to discredit Farleigh.
 Saltburn / int_75d6bf40
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Saltburn / int_75d6bf40
 Saltburn / int_79e07b47
type
Lecture as Exposition
 Saltburn / int_79e07b47
comment
Lecture as Exposition: Oliver recites Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" in his tutorial, a poem about obsession and possession taken to murderous extremes.
 Saltburn / int_79e07b47
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Saltburn / int_79e07b47
 Saltburn / int_7a0374eb
type
Impoverished Patrician
 Saltburn / int_7a0374eb
comment
Impoverished Patrician: Farleigh's mother, Sir James's sister, is said to be living in squalor a repeatedly must beg for financial aid from Sir James. She's apparently terrible with money. Pamela seems to belong to the upper crust but can only afford a tiny studio apartment if left to her own devices.
 Saltburn / int_7a0374eb
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Saltburn / int_7a0374eb
 Saltburn / int_7c4fdf65
type
Red Is Violent
 Saltburn / int_7c4fdf65
comment
Red Is Violent: Duncan draws the curtains to the dining room so that the family taking their lunch within doesn't have to see Felix's dead body being carted off by the coroner just outside. Thus, the family's efforts to ignore the situation at hand are bathed in a dark shade of crimson for the rest of the scene. Just to hammer things home, a dazed Venetia empties a bottle of red wine into an overflowing glass, staining the tablecloth red, as well.
 Saltburn / int_7c4fdf65
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Saltburn / int_7c4fdf65
 Saltburn / int_7febc23b
type
Establishing Character Moment
 Saltburn / int_7febc23b
comment
Establishing Character Moment: The Cattons collectively get one in their first scene, when we see them braying with laughter at the teen sex comedy Superbad and gossiping shamelessly. These might be landed gentry, but they're not genteel.
 Saltburn / int_7febc23b
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Saltburn / int_7febc23b
 Saltburn / int_80251be3
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How We Got Here
 Saltburn / int_80251be3
comment
How We Got Here: The film opens on Oliver in a bright room recalling his feelings about Felix, and the film cuts back and forth between the chronological events of the plot and his commentary on them, indicating both through him speaking in past tense and his changed appearance (looking more mature and well-groomed) that this is him in the future after the plot's events have taken place. Once that scene becomes the present of the film, it's revealed that he is telling all of this to a mortally ill and bedridden Elspeth.
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Saltburn / int_80251be3
 Saltburn / int_80595ee2
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Prince and Pauper
 Saltburn / int_80595ee2
comment
Prince and Pauper: An enforced example that doesn't include overt resemblance. Oliver is a pauper, from an extremely lower-class and abusive background, while the wealthy, popular aristocrat Felix is (almost literally) a prince. Oliver reveals himself to have been lying about his background to ingratiate himself with Felix, though he is still from a poorer background. When Felix finds out, he kills him and then goes to extreme lengths to try and stay at Saltburn, eventually essentially replacing him as the heir.
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Saltburn / int_80595ee2
 Saltburn / int_81a1960f
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Silence Is Golden
 Saltburn / int_81a1960f
comment
Silence Is Golden: The sequence of Venetia's suicide and funeral plays out with absolutely no sound.
 Saltburn / int_81a1960f
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Saltburn / int_81a1960f
 Saltburn / int_863fa679
type
What Happened to the Mouse?
 Saltburn / int_863fa679
comment
What Happened to the Mouse?: We have no idea what happened to Farleigh after he was banished from Saltburn, though he should consider himself lucky he didn't end up dead like everyone else. We also never learn what happens to Michael after Oliver ditches him to hang out with Felix.
 Saltburn / int_863fa679
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Saltburn / int_863fa679
 Saltburn / int_88a97dd4
type
Stiff Upper Lip
 Saltburn / int_88a97dd4
comment
Stiff Upper Lip: Deconstructed. The Cattons are a fairly repressed bunch, very rarely allowing themselves to feel things deeply. After Felix is found dead, they try to muddle on through the day without acknowledging the gravity of the situation. The fact that they don't do a very good job of it at all only highlights the futility of such an attitude. Even their butler gets in on this, clearly struggling to maintain his usual icy demeanor despite he himself being rattled by what's happened.
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Saltburn / int_88a97dd4
 Saltburn / int_8ba6dee3
type
Self-Poisoning Gambit
 Saltburn / int_8ba6dee3
comment
Self-Poisoning Gambit: Oliver poisons his own bottle and exchanges it with Felix's after confronting him in the maze, making himself vomit to keep from killing himself.
 Saltburn / int_8ba6dee3
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1.0
 Saltburn / int_8ba6dee3
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Saltburn / int_8ba6dee3
 Saltburn / int_95c2a9dd
type
Outliving One's Offspring
 Saltburn / int_95c2a9dd
comment
Outliving One's Offspring: This happens to Elspeth and James, twice, and in quick succession. Despite their vapid ways, it's clear that they're genuinely devastated by this.
 Saltburn / int_95c2a9dd
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Saltburn / int_95c2a9dd
 Saltburn / int_97926168
type
Rewatch Bonus
 Saltburn / int_97926168
comment
Rewatch Bonus: When Oliver is at Oxford he tells a professor he finished the books on the summer reading list, only to be caught off guard when the professor clarifies that the list was not designed to be completed, as it featured books far too long and heady to be read in one summer. This characterizes Oliver as out of his depth in the world of academia but otherwise earnest for committing to an impossible task; looking back after the rest of the film, it's clear Oliver was lying about reading all of the books, in the same way he lies about his other accomplishments and life stories.
 Saltburn / int_97926168
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 Saltburn / int_97926168
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Saltburn / int_97926168
 Saltburn / int_987be393
type
Gambit Roulette
 Saltburn / int_987be393
comment
Gambit Roulette: Oliver's plan apparently included simply waiting fifteen years for James to die on his own, hoping that there would have been no one else significant coming into Elspeth's life able to hinder his plans, and that she would have kept a fond memory of a boy she met for merely six months over a decade ago.
 Saltburn / int_987be393
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Saltburn / int_987be393
 Saltburn / int_99ff79ee
type
Heat Wave
 Saltburn / int_99ff79ee
comment
Heat Wave: The summer of 2007 is portrayed (inaccurately) as being this. While there was a heatwave in the summer of 2007 elsewhere in Europe, large parts of the UK were actually flooded throughout June and July 2007.
 Saltburn / int_99ff79ee
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1.0
 Saltburn / int_99ff79ee
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Saltburn / int_99ff79ee
 Saltburn / int_9d12bbc1
type
Foreshadowing
 Saltburn / int_9d12bbc1
comment
Foreshadowing: Felix shows Oliver his family's ritual of honoring deceased relatives by writing their name on a stone and throwing it into the river. Oliver decides to try it using a stone with his father's name, but his stone misses the water completely — possibly because, as is later revealed, his father isn't actually dead. When Percy Shelley's doppelgänger is being discussed over breakfast, a person with Felix's clothes and build passes by the window. We're then told that Shelley died shortly after his doppelgänger was seen. Oliver performs oral sex on Venetia while she's on her period, saying that he doesn't mind blood. Her last scene is of her dead body in a bathtub full of her own blood — also Oliver's handiwork. The dish Farleigh had reportedly stolen was a piece whose name Farleigh hadn't recognized earlier in the movie when Oliver mentioned it, surprising Sir James with his knowledge. The mention of the name in the e-mail is the first hint that Farleigh wasn't the sender.
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Saltburn / int_9d12bbc1
 Saltburn / int_a2484b0e
type
The Beautiful Elite
 Saltburn / int_a2484b0e
comment
The Beautiful Elite: The Catton family consists of the beautiful Lady Elspeth and her equally beautiful children, Felix and Venetia. Head of the family, Sir James Catton, whilst not quite beautiful, is certainly dashing in his own way, and as a baronet, he owns a vast inherited country house, featuring multiple rooms filled with priceless furniture and artworks as well as a fleet of staff. The family live a glamorously louche existence, culminating in a birthday party thrown for Oliver of such megalomaniacal proportions that it wouldn't look out a lot of place on the party pages of society bible, Tatler.
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Saltburn / int_a2484b0e
 Saltburn / int_a3c0c1df
type
Dance Party Ending
 Saltburn / int_a3c0c1df
comment
Dance Party Ending: A one-person example. Oliver, having killed off the Cattons and inherited Saltburn, joyously dances through the mansion stark naked to Sophie Ellis-Bextor's "Murder on the Dance Floor".
 Saltburn / int_a3c0c1df
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Saltburn / int_a3c0c1df
 Saltburn / int_a82ff02f
type
Meet Cute
 Saltburn / int_a82ff02f
comment
Meet Cute: A platonic version — Oliver first runs into Felix when he sees that his bike has gotten a flat on the side of the road, and offers his own bike so Felix can get to class. As the ending reveals, Oliver actually orchestrated their meeting by deliberately puncturing the tire ahead of time.
 Saltburn / int_a82ff02f
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1.0
 Saltburn / int_a82ff02f
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 Saltburn
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Saltburn / int_a82ff02f
 Saltburn / int_abe4d7b
type
Blue Blood
 Saltburn / int_abe4d7b
comment
Blue Blood: The honorific "Sir", and the fact that his title is hereditary, denotes that Felix and Venetia's father James is a baronet. His title written in full would be "Sir James Catton, Baronet". Whilst baronetcies are hereditary, typically passing in the male line, they are not peers, having never been conferred noble status. Socially, however, baronets are regarded as part of the British aristocracy. Elspeth, James' wife, would use the title "Lady", and the baronetcy and associated estate would pass to Felix upon his father's death.
 Saltburn / int_abe4d7b
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Saltburn / int_abe4d7b
 Saltburn / int_acbe0212
type
Chekhov's Party
 Saltburn / int_acbe0212
comment
Chekhov's Party: Early in his stay, Felix and Elspeth enthusiastically tell Oliver that they'll throw a party for his birthday near the end of the summer. This is what stops Felix from telling his family about Oliver's true nature, and where Oliver kills Felix.
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 Saltburn / int_acbe0212
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Saltburn / int_acbe0212
 Saltburn / int_ad1db87c
type
Oh, Crap!
 Saltburn / int_ad1db87c
comment
Oh, Crap!: The only time Oliver sincerely panics is when he realizes that Felix's birthday surprise is a trip to his (living, sober, and affectionate) parents' house.
 Saltburn / int_ad1db87c
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Saltburn / int_ad1db87c
 Saltburn / int_ae3c0b6
type
Bath Suicide
 Saltburn / int_ae3c0b6
comment
Bath Suicide: Venetia dies after slitting her wrists in the bathtub with two razor blades that had been left by Oliver. The last image of her in the film is of her body laying in the bathtub, with its water turned red.
 Saltburn / int_ae3c0b6
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Saltburn / int_ae3c0b6
 Saltburn / int_af696bef
type
Fish out of Water
 Saltburn / int_af696bef
comment
Fish out of Water: Oliver has no idea how to live among the aristocracy, and he's constantly gaffing. He arrives at Saltburn early and on his own, not realizing that the family had sent a car for him, he doesn't have black tie clothing for the formal dinners, and he doesn't understand how breakfast works or who he's supposed to talk to first at a dinner party.
 Saltburn / int_af696bef
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Saltburn / int_af696bef
 Saltburn / int_b6a13a56
type
Ten Little Murder Victims
 Saltburn / int_b6a13a56
comment
Ten Little Murder Victims: Not a straight example, but its portrayal of a deadly country house owes a lot to this subgenre. Everybody but Oliver and Duncan die. Pamela dies by suicide, Oliver murders Felix and Elspeth and manipulates Venetia into committing suicide, and frames Farleigh for a part in Felix's death to get him exiled, and then Sir James dies from natural causes. Flashbacks at the end depict exactly how each happens.
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Saltburn / int_b6a13a56
 Saltburn / int_bc502e4b
type
You Are What You Hate
 Saltburn / int_bc502e4b
comment
You Are What You Hate: Farleigh is the most classist character in the film, bullying Oliver relentlessly for being poor and living as a parasite at Saltburn. However, Farleigh is the most like Oliver of all the cast. As an Impoverished Patrician whose parents are bankrupt, he too lives at Saltburn at the expense of his wealthier family members. His American accent and African ancestry set him apart just as much as Oliver.
 Saltburn / int_bc502e4b
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Saltburn / int_bc502e4b
 Saltburn / int_bd0230fb
type
Ambiguously Bi
 Saltburn / int_bd0230fb
comment
Ambiguously Bi: Oliver is somewhere between this and Ambiguously Gay. He's madly besotted with Felix and gets close to an Almost Kiss during their confrontation (though explicitly denies being in love with him), he gives Farleigh a handjob, and he kisses and goes down on Venetia, but was likely doing so just to get closer to the various Cattons in pursuit of Saltburn. Felix is a more ambiguous case. He's fixated on Oliver for a while and makes a point of telling Elspeth that Oliver is handsome. He also kisses Oliver on the cheek at one point. When he learns that Oliver hooked up with Venetia, he gets very angry, and it's not clear whether this is a case of My Sister Is Off-Limits or jealousy.
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Saltburn / int_bd0230fb
 Saltburn / int_bf9163d9
type
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead
 Saltburn / int_bf9163d9
comment
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The young women that surround Felix. His sister Venetia (who Oliver hooks up with) is blonde, his ex-girlfriend Annabel (who Oliver also hooks up with) is a redhead, and his new girlfriend India is brunette.
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Saltburn / int_bf9163d9
 Saltburn / int_c49935fa
type
20 Minutes into the Past
 Saltburn / int_c49935fa
comment
20 Minutes into the Past: Released in 2023, most of the story is set in the year 2006-2007. This is apparently so that the Time Skip section doesn't take place in the future.
 Saltburn / int_c49935fa
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1.0
 Saltburn / int_c49935fa
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Saltburn / int_c49935fa
 Saltburn / int_c660bc15
type
Fan Disservice
 Saltburn / int_c660bc15
comment
Fan Disservice: The image of a naked Oliver cavorting through the now-deserted Saltburn. Barry Keoghan is sexy and in very good shape, but it's hard to be titillated after knowing he killed the entire Catton family and got away with it. Before this, we get such lovely sexual scenes as Venetia being eaten out while covered in her own period blood and Oliver drinking Felix's semen-filled bath water.
 Saltburn / int_c660bc15
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Saltburn / int_c660bc15
 Saltburn / int_c75df49a
type
Shout-Out
 Saltburn / int_c75df49a
comment
Shout-Out: In one scene, Felix, Farleigh and Venetia all read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; Felix wonders aloud if Harry, Ron and Hermione have threesomes, and Farleigh answers in the affirmative, saying that "they’re missing out on an opportunity if they’re not." In another scene, Venetia tells Oliver that Sir James has nicknamed him Spider-Man, "because you're always just skulking around, weaving your spider-y, Oliver-y web." The film's whole premise calls to mind The Smiths' song "This Charming Man", complete with class differences and implicitly queer romance. Oliver and Felix's Meet Cute even matches the song's first linenote "Punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate...".
 Saltburn / int_c75df49a
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Saltburn / int_c75df49a
 Saltburn / int_c868a42a
type
Freudian Excuse
 Saltburn / int_c868a42a
comment
Freudian Excuse: At one point early in the film, Oliver gets upset when Felix makes a mess in the dorm room. Later, when telling Felix about his mother, Oliver talks about how she left the house a mess due to her addiction and negligence, suggesting this trope. However, we later learn that Oliver came from a comfortable, stable home and completely lied about his background, meaning he deliberately invoked this trope to make Felix and his family feel sorry for him.
 Saltburn / int_c868a42a
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Saltburn / int_c868a42a
 Saltburn / int_c9da2b5
type
Cast Full of Rich People
 Saltburn / int_c9da2b5
comment
Cast Full of Rich People: Everyone, excluding presumably Duncan (the butler) and Oliver himself, is from a wealthy, aristocratic background.
 Saltburn / int_c9da2b5
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Saltburn / int_c9da2b5
 Saltburn / int_dae3844e
type
Hidden Disdain Reveal
 Saltburn / int_dae3844e
comment
Hidden Disdain Reveal: In the end, Oliver claims he hated Felix and the Cattons the whole time. Whether this is fully truthful is ambiguous.
 Saltburn / int_dae3844e
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Saltburn / int_dae3844e
 Saltburn / int_dbca2c99
type
Red Herring
 Saltburn / int_dbca2c99
comment
Red Herring: Felix tells Oliver that Duncan (likely with Elspeth's knowledge or approval) goes through the bags of people at Saltburn, implying that he and/or Elspeth may be very sinister, or that they might find something they don't want (or Oliver doesn't, anyway) in Oliver's bags. None of this happens, and their voyeurism doesn't come back. This also applies to the framing device, of Oliver speaking to someone off-camera and waxing nostalgically about his relationship with Felix. This suggests some sort of tragic love story, perhaps being related to an interviewer, but it eventually turns out he was telling all of this to a comatose Elspeth, whom he's about to murder.
 Saltburn / int_dbca2c99
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Saltburn / int_dbca2c99
 Saltburn / int_dd6ce5db
type
Artistic License
 Saltburn / int_dd6ce5db
comment
Artistic License: "Saltburn" is an odd choice of name for a stately home, as Saltburn-by-the-Sea, its namesake, is a quaint Northern seaside town.
 Saltburn / int_dd6ce5db
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Saltburn / int_dd6ce5db
 Saltburn / int_deea2fb5
type
Idle Rich
 Saltburn / int_deea2fb5
comment
Idle Rich: The Cattons spend their days idling around their mansion, sunbathing, watching movies, hosting parties, and gossiping. The expense of maintaining Saltburn with a full staff would be incredible, but Sir James seems to have no career.
 Saltburn / int_deea2fb5
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Saltburn / int_deea2fb5
 Saltburn / int_e11e88b6
type
Thousand-Yard Stare
 Saltburn / int_e11e88b6
comment
Thousand-Yard Stare: Several members of the Cattons are seen with one in the wake of Felix and Venetia's deaths.
 Saltburn / int_e11e88b6
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 Saltburn / int_e11e88b6
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Saltburn / int_e11e88b6
 Saltburn / int_e34400ab
type
Ambiguously Gay
 Saltburn / int_e34400ab
comment
Oliver is somewhere between this and Ambiguously Gay. He's madly besotted with Felix and gets close to an Almost Kiss during their confrontation (though explicitly denies being in love with him), he gives Farleigh a handjob, and he kisses and goes down on Venetia, but was likely doing so just to get closer to the various Cattons in pursuit of Saltburn.
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Saltburn / int_e34400ab
 Saltburn / int_e7e558
type
The Oner
 Saltburn / int_e7e558
comment
The Oner: Oliver's nude dance scene throughout the mansion
 Saltburn / int_e7e558
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 Saltburn / int_e7e558
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Saltburn / int_e7e558
 Saltburn / int_f26d5e66
type
Brainless Beauty
 Saltburn / int_f26d5e66
comment
Brainless Beauty: Elspeth is a beautiful woman who once worked as a model and partied with rock stars. She's also easily manipulated and admits that she never wanted to learn anything.
 Saltburn / int_f26d5e66
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Saltburn / int_f26d5e66
 Saltburn / int_fb56b948
type
My Sister Is Off-Limits
 Saltburn / int_fb56b948
comment
Felix is a more ambiguous case. He's fixated on Oliver for a while and makes a point of telling Elspeth that Oliver is handsome. He also kisses Oliver on the cheek at one point. When he learns that Oliver hooked up with Venetia, he gets very angry, and it's not clear whether this is a case of My Sister Is Off-Limits or jealousy.
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ItemName
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Saltburn

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Saltburn
hasFeature
But Not Too Black / int_d23ab89f
 Saltburn
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Chekhov's Party / int_d23ab89f
 Saltburn
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Films of the 2020s / int_d23ab89f
 Saltburn
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Lost Love Montage / int_d23ab89f
 Saltburn
hasFeature
Spoiled by the Cast List / int_d23ab89f
 Saltburn
hasFeature
Turn of the Millennium / int_d23ab89f