Saltburn’s controversial bits were destined to blow up online — and now they have

09.01.2024 - 21:29 / polygon.com / Jacob Elordi

Saltburn, the 2023 movie about a young man who slurps up bathtub cum water, has become a surprise flashpoint for internet fandom. The new movie from writer-director Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) follows Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), a seemingly docile and underprivileged Oxford University student who spends a summer at the palatial estate of his staggeringly rich, popular classmate Felix (Priscilla star Jacob Elordi). Since its release last November, the movie has become known for its shocking scenes and its twisted central relationship, which has inspired an enormous fan base online.

The “Saltburn” hashtag on TikTok has garnered more than 2.1 billion views as of this writing, with the top videos getting more than 23 million views. One song from the movie’s soundtrack, the mashup “Perfect (Exceeder),” rose to 40 on the Singles U.K. chart more than a decade after its release because of Saltburn fandom.

Saltburn’s internet virality can be a lot, especially if you’ve just found yourself in the full swamp of the TikTok trend. Here’s why it’s found such a virulent online fandom.

[Ed note: This post contains spoilers for a couple of Saltburn’s more controversial and heavily discussed moments.]

The first step to understanding why Saltburn has become such fodder for memes, response videos, and analysis is getting an idea of what about it resonated with audiences. The movie follows two young university students as they spend a summer together at a palatial summer mansion. Felix Catton, a carefree rich boy played by a swoony Elordi, invites his classmate Oliver to his mansion for the summer after Oliver tells him his dad died of a drug overdose. Over the course of the movie, Fennell depicts a creepy relationship where Oliver becomes increasingly obsessed with Felix, in ways that feel simultaneously sexual and aspirational — Oliver may want to have sex with Felix, but he also clearly wants to be Felix.

A large part of what has drawn people to it online are two deliberately provocative scenes. In one, Oliver spies on Felix masturbating in a bathtub, then sneaks into the bathroom afterward to lustfully lick up Felix’s bathwater. His unrequited obsession with Felix deepens throughout the movie, and in a later scene, after Felix dies, Oliver weeps over his grave — then pulls down his pants for some good old-fashioned penis-in-earth grief sex. Both these sequences were memorable enough to drum up buzz around the movie.

10/10 would recommend a girls night to watch saltburn and see friends reaction #saltburn #jacobelordi #barrykeoghan #reaction

Those scenes have inspired a lot of fan debate over how “shocking” the film actually is. Some viewers have made reaction videos, supposedly recording their faces