History Characters / Saltburn

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Our first inclination that something is seriously wrong the morning after Oliver's birthday party is when the ultra-stiff and cold Duncan is spotted with his hair disheveled. Oliver actually seems genuinely shocked to see him like this, and Duncan notices the look and immediately smooths his hair down.

* HeadTurningBeauty: The first time Oliver sees Felix, he's completely enraptured with him. He's not the only one.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:Though he dies in 2020 (comparatively young), he outlives both Felix and Venetia.]]

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:After Felix's death, Venetia goes into a state of shock from which she never recovers. She commits suicide in the days following, although not without [[DrivenToSuicide a little help]] from Oliver.]]

* PleaseWakeUp: A variant -- [[spoiler: when he finds Felix's body, Sir James keeps insisting that he's just cold while trying to get him a jacket.]]

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: [[spoiler:Fourteen years later, Elspeth has cut her hair into a more practical and suitable style than what she had before, signifying that she's managed to become a better person (or at least a more serious person) in the interim.]]

* HistoryWithCelebrity: She used to be a student at a prestigious art school and a model, which meant she used to run with a few now-famous musicians. She scoffs at the in-universe theory that Music/{{Pulp}}'s "Common People" was written about her, though -- after all, she's not Greek!

* PopularityCycle: Elspeth clearly gets sick of people and throws them out of Saltburn, regardless of what they need. She does this to Pamela, resulting in Pamela's suicide.

* SignificantWardrobeShift: When we see Elspeth fourteen years later, she's dressed practically and appropriately instead of the high-fashion outfits she was previously swanning around in and has [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange cut her hair]] into a more suitable style too. This suggests that she's no longer the frivolous RichBitch she once was.

* HollywoodHomely: In-universe and played for laughs in its absurdity. Oliver says that Venetia is jealous of Elspeth's beauty and feels unable to live up to her...to Elspeth. Elspeth is clearly flattered and delighted.

* RedheadsAreUncool: Zigzagged. Elspeth indignantly notes that Pamela ''looked'' like a cool rock chicken thanks to her clothes, but was crestfallen when she got to Saltburn and learned she was actually kind of stupid and boring.

* ButNotTooBi: Felix seems extremely attached to Oliver and possessive over his "friends", but he is only shown hooking up with women.

* GentleGiant: There's a lot of emphasis on the [[OneHeadTaller height difference]] between Felix and Oliver. However, Felix never behaves aggressively towards Oliver, [[spoiler:even when Oliver gets violent with ''him'', and is ultimately murdered by Oliver.]]

* KnightInShiningArmor: Played with. Felix certainly aspires to be this for Oliver, [[spoiler:although it backfires when he attempts to fix Oliver's estranged relationship with his drug-addict mother, and instead discovers that she is a very ordinary, loving parent whose husband is still very much alive.]]

* NiceGuy: He's soft-hearted and friendly, and can't hear scary stories without getting nightmares. Though he initially starts to pull away from their friendship, once he hears Oliver's father has died, he instantly does his best to comfort and support him. [[spoiler:Which makes him feel all the more betrayed when he learns that Oliver's father is alive and well, and Oliver invented the story specifically to manipulate his sympathy and bring them together again.]]
* PopularityCycle: It's implied that Felix has this problem: Venetia dismissively tells Oliver that she likes him even more than "last year's one", the implication being that Felix picks up impoverished people (especially men) to befriend and then discards him when he's grown bored of them. He also ghosts his on/off girlfriend without talking to her and leaves her waiting for him without an explanation in their halls.
* SpoiledSweet: Felix is a RareMaleExample. He's LovedByAll at home and at Oxford, comes from extreme wealth and an aristocratic lineage, refers casually to the priceless art they have at Saltburn, and is genuinely always very kind to Oliver -- additionally, his mother comments that he's kind to everyone. However, he also seems somewhat oblivious to his own wealth and privilege, and can be possessive over Oliver. [[spoiler:This ultimately proves to be his downfall, as he's too trusting of Oliver, and out of principle he doesn't tell anyone about Oliver's true background when he accidentally discovers it -- and therefore no one suspects that Oliver is a liar with something to hide after Felix's own death, which enables him to pick off the other members of Felix's family.]]

* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler: Hinted at about halfway through the film when his lies about his family are revealed shortly before Felix's death and confirmed by the end.]]

* MrFanservice: Felix is played by the gorgeous JacobElordi, and [[https://taustralia.com.au/jacob-elordi-saltburn-eyebrow-piercing/# in interviews]] EmeraldFennell has talked about having to fight producers for Felix to have an eyebrow piercing, as they couldn't understand why she would "mar the most beautiful man in the world’s face", regardless of how period-accurate the stud might be.

* KnightInShiningArmor: Played with. Felix certainly aspires to be this for Oliver, although it
* NiceGuy: He's soft-hearted and friendly, and can't hear horror stories without getting nightmares. Though he initially starts to pull away from the friendship, once he hears Oliver's father has died, he instantly works to comfort and support him. [[spoiler:Which makes him feel all the more betrayed when he learns that Oliver's father is alive and well, and Oliver invented the story specifically to manipulate his sympathy and bring them together again.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: Oliver seems besotted with Felix, but denies being in love with him, and gives Farleigh a handjob. While he also goes down on Venetia and has sex with Annabelle, this seems like a blatant attempt to take what Felix has.
* AnimalMotifs: Discussed. Venetia talks about how her father sees Oliver as a [[SneakySpider spider, skulking and spinning plans in the shadows,]] while she sees him as a moth -- small, harmless, attracted to bright, shiny things. [[spoiler:Her father is closer.]]
* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Oliver desperately tells Felix that he loves him (multiple times) when [[spoiler:Felix exiles him from Saltburn.]]

* ABirthdayNotABreak: Though how much it affected Oliver is ambiguous, [[spoiler:Felix finds out Oliver was lying and attempts to exile him from Saltburn on Oliver's birthday. Oliver then tells Felix he loves him, almost kisses him, and kills him.]]
* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Oliver appears to be a shy, awkward boy longing to be part of the upper crust. It turns out that he's been lying through his teeth about his circumstances and spends the entire movie manipulating things in his favor until the entire Catton family is dead either at his hand or via his influence and he now owns their home.]]
* ButNotTooBi: Oliver denies being in love with Felix, but he [[spoiler:gives Farleigh a handjob and tries to give Felix a ForcefulKiss.]]

* JealousRomanticWitness: Oliver [[ThePeepingTom watches through the window]] as Felix hooks up with Annabelle.

* MysteriousPast: [[spoiler:A variant. How he spends the fifteen-year TimeSkip is unknown - does he quit Oxford? What does he do for work before seeing Elspeth?]]
* NakedNutter: [[spoiler:He gets naked twice, once to hump Felix's grave, and the other to dance in celebration throughout Saltburn.]]

* PennyAmongDiamonds: Oliver is the orphaned child of addicts among TheBeautifulElite of the English aristocracy. [[spoiler:He's faking it. He may still qualify as the only middle-class person in the upper classes, but he isn't poor.]]
* RagsToRiches: Downplayed. [[spoiler:This ''would'' be a completely straight example, as Oliver ends up inheriting Saltburn (and presumably whatever is left of Elspeth's fortune) after killing her. However, while Oliver is nowhere near as wealthy as the Cattons, his sob story of drugs and addicted parents in horrific poverty is a total fabrication designed to appeal to Felix and the family, and his parents appear middle class at the very least.]]

* StalkerWithACrush: [[spoiler:While he (not very convincingly) denies being in love with Felix, he does stalk Felix to be near him and ingratiate himself with him.]]

* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Oliver, jarringly, continues to be a Catton hanger-on after [[spoiler:Felix and Venetia's deaths]], though only Sir James seems aware of it. [[spoiler:He senses Oliver's bad influence on Elspeth and pays him to leave and never bother Elspeth again. It works for a while until he dies fourteen years later in 2020.]]
* TheVamp: [[spoiler:Oliver is a RareMaleExample of this, given the way he seduces both Venetia (a woman) and Farleigh (a man) with equal ease as part of his many schemes.]]

* AmbiguouslyBi: Felix is shown hooking up with women/girls, but he's also very possessive over Oliver and infuriated by the possibility that he slept with Venetia.
* BigManOnCampus: He's handsome, popular, and charismatic, and the script notes that wherever he is, he's the superstar and the center of the universe.

* TheCharmer: Felix can charm everybody and anybody.

* PopularityCycle: It's implied that Felix has this problem: Venetia dismissively tells Oliver that she likes him even more than "last year's one", the implication being that Felix picks up impoverished people (especially men) to befriend and then discards him when he's bored of them. He also ghosts his on/off girlfriend without talking to her and leaves her without an explanation in their halls.
* SpoiledSweet: Felix is a RareMaleExample. He's LovedByAll at home and at Oxford, comes from extreme wealth and an aristocratic lineage, refers casually to the priceless art they have at Saltburn, and is genuinely always very kind to Oliver -- additionally, his mother comments that he's kind to everyone. However, he also seems somewhat oblivious to his own wealth and privilege and is a bit possessive over Oliver. [[spoiler:This ultimately proves to be his downfall, as he's too trusting of Oliver, and out of principle he doesn't tell anyone about Oliver's true background -- and therefore no one suspects that Oliver is a liar with something to hide.]]

* WalkingSpoiler: It's hard to discuss him without revealing that he's [[spoiler:a VillainProtagonist who murders most of the Cattons directly or indirectly to seize their estate.]]

* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Oliver, jarringly, continues to be a Catton hanger-on after [[spoiler:Felix and Venetia's deaths]], though only Sir James seems aware of it. [[spoiler:He senses Oliver's bad influence on Elspeth and pays him to leave and never bother Elspeth again. It works for a while, until he dies fourteen years later in 2020.]]

* DepravedBisexual: Farleigh is a [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example, by comparison. His sexuality is a lot less ambiguous, at least - given the level of attraction he displays towards men and women alike. He's also one of the more outwardly-unpleasant and rude characters, and has (according to Felix) been kicked out of "every school in England" for [[BlackComedyRape having sex with the teachers.]] Mean streak aside, he never does anything quite as malevolent and twisted as Oliver.