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In the movie Saltburn, shortly after Felix’s death, a distraught Venetia describes Oliver as a moth who beats repeatedly against a window, hoping to be let inside. Her comment is, in some ways, extremely perceptive. Oliver has indeed spent much of the movie hoping to prolong his stay at Saltburn, ingratiating himself with Felix and the other members of the Catton family. The ending of the film reveals just how far Oliver is willing to go in order to secure his place in the upper-class world that Saltburn represents.  

Throughout the movie, an older Oliver occasionally narrates or comments upon the events depicted. At the very end of the film, Oliver reveals that his comments are addressed to Lady Elspeth, who is unconscious and hooked up to life support. As she lays in bed, terminally ill, a series of flashbacks reveal that Oliver has orchestrated many of the events of the film, puncturing Felix’s bike tire in order to engineer their first meeting, poisoning Felix when he discovers the truth about Oliver’s background, framing Farleigh for the theft of expensive pottery, and laying out razors for a distraught Venetia in order to push her towards suicide. Even his meeting with Lady Elspeth at a café was no coincidence: another flashback shows that he was only pretending to work on his laptop and was actually waiting for her to arrive at the café, which is located near an apartment that she has recently purchased.  

The ending of the film reveals the full extent of Oliver’s scheme to assume ownership of Saltburn and the Catton family fortune. By the close of the movie, Oliver emerges as a clever and ruthless figure who is willing do anything, even commit murder, to move up the socioeconomic ladder. In light of these revelations, the audience must re-examine all of Oliver’s actions up to this point.  

His monologue serves as a sort of confession. He proudly takes credit for his own scheme, gloating over his successes without assuming any risk, as Lady Elspeth remains unconscious. Shockingly, he cuts off her life support even though she is close to death anyway. As she dies, he straddles her on the bed, laying his head on her chest and even wrapping her arm around him. His behavior is both intimate and deeply vindictive, reflecting his mixed feelings of desire and hatred for the Cattons. Not only does he want their fortune, but he also wants to punish them for what he regards as their complacency and arrogance. In killing Lady Elspeth, he emphasizes his own power over her and, additionally, secures his inheritance of Saltburn without giving her any chance of recovering or altering her will. In the end, the “moth” has finally been let into the Catton home, and Oliver takes possession of the mansion and the money.  

In the final scene of Saltburn, Oliver snorts a line of cocaine and dances naked through the halls of Saltburn as the song “Murder on the Dancefloor” plays. He now lives in the King’s Room, once occupied by King Henry VIII, in the “state halls” of the building, historically reserved for visiting heads of state or other dignitaries. In taking up the King’s Room as his personal bedroom, Oliver underscores his status as the new “king” of Saltburn. Even his nudity attests to his powerful feeling of ownership over the house, as he behaves in a manner that would be highly inappropriate for a mere guest.

As he walks through the halls, taking stock of everything that he now owns, he reverses the path through the building that he took when he Felix first showed him around the mansion, emphasizing just how far he has come since he first arrived at Saltburn as an awed guest. The upbeat pop song, with comedic lyrics that reference homicide, adds a note of macabre humor to the scene. As the film ends, Oliver stands before the “Catton Family Players” music box. He has placed four stones, each bearing a name of a member of the Catton family. Here, Oliver puts a dark twist on a Catton family tradition. In the past, when a member of the family passed away, the others would throw a stone bearing their name into the pond at Saltburn. Oliver, however, retrieves the stones from the pond and brings them into the house, symbolizing his deep sense of possessiveness over the family that he has destroyed.  

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