Here’s Why ‘Saltburn’s Ending Song Is So Perfect
After watching Saltburn, we can’t stop listening to that perfect needle drop at the end of the movie.
On its surface, Saltburn is a simple story, but it’s so much more than what the trailers will show you. The Emerald Fennell film is about an average guy named Oliver (Barry Keoghan) who gets to see the life of the ultra-wealthy through his new friend Felix (Jacob Elordi), who grew up on an estate called Saltburn.
When Oliver doesn’t want to go back to his abysmal home after their first year at university, Felix invites Oliver to join him for the summer at Saltburn. Oliver falls into the strange world of the wealthy that seems to exist on a different plane than what the rest of us are used to.
The movie delves into some wild areas that audiences won’t expect going into it. When people watch Saltburn, they tend to have a lot of feelings afterward. It’s proved to be one of the most divisive films of 2023. Whether you loved it or hated it, you have to admit that the end scene is nothing less than iconic. Part of that is due to the perfect song choice to accompany Oliver’s triumphant tour of the Saltburn Estate.
What is the song that plays at the end of Saltburn?
The song that plays at the end of Saltburn is “Murder on the Dance Floor” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. It may be a dance song from 2001, but it fits the vibe of Saltburn—which is set in the early ‘00s—perfectly. With lyrics like “If you think you’re getting away, I will prove you wrong, I’ll take you all the way,” and “Gonna burn this goddamn house right down,” the dance beat fits Oliver’s journey throughout the movie. “Murder on the Dance Floor” is an anthem that matches the twisted narrative of Oliver’s mind.
Oliver’s life changed when he became friends with Felix. It set him on a path that would consume him entirely. At the end of the movie, Oliver decimates the family who once owned Saltburn and ensures the vast house becomes his possession. The closing scene of the film is all about Oliver’s victory over the rich. He ate them up and left no crumbs. Originally, the ending was going to be Oliver walking through Saltburn, but Fennell decided it needed to be a dance set to “Murder on the Dance Floor.”
Oliver and “Murder on the Dance Floor” were a match made in heaven
Choreographer Polly Bennett told Vulture, “It’s a dance of extreme ownership. He’s waking from a bed that isn’t his, in a house that isn’t his, and moving naked through corridors that aren’t his. He’s shed the veneers and this is who he actually is, in his full, non-regretful body.”
The dance through Saltburn is one long shot that bookends the tour Felix gave Oliver earlier in the film. During that scene, we feel the overwhelmingness of Saltburn. In the last moments, Oliver isn’t lost in Saltburn—he’s owning it. In an interview with GQ, Fennell said it took 11 takes to match the dance and the song just right. “From a performance point of view, [Keoghan] has to make it feel easy, and cool, and you know, to be totally relaxed about being naked in a huge house.”
Fennell also explained this was the perfect ending for Oliver’s story: “I think it’s a happy ending, [but] the happiest ending [for Oliver] would of course be with him and Felix married, living there together. I think that in his mind, and in my mind, that would be the dream. That dream is not possible. So, therefore, this is the best of a bad bunch of options.”
(featured image: MGM)
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