All the subtle and seriously clever foreshadowing in Saltburn you definitely missed

Saltburn is full of twists and dark turns that leaves you exclaiming at the end “well, I didn’t see that coming!” but in fact, you should have, as the Emerald Fennel film is so full of foreshadowing that it basically spoils its own plot. However, they are so subtle and unassuming that you shall be forgiven for not noticing them on your first watch, but only this once.

So, go on, subscribe to Amazon Prime and give silly little Saltburn another watch and you’ll realise that signs for all the murders and Oliver’s lies were there all along. The grave humping scene however did come out of left field, I’ll give you that. So, here’s all the subtle but seriously clever foreshadowing in Saltburn that you most definitely missed:

The Oxford professor knowing Farleigh’s mother

This isn’t so much foreshadowing but more so a parallel, at the start of Saltburn Oliver first meets Farleigh in their shared office hours with their professor at Oxford. It in this initial session that the professor admits he knows of Farleigh’s mother from university and that he “admired her from afar”. Just as Oliver does with Felix and the Catton family.

Oliver’s rock for his father doesn’t land in the river

The fact that Oliver’s dad isn’t actually dead was alluded to early on in the film when Felix takes Oli to throw a stone in the river with his dad’s name on, as per tradition in the Catton family whenever someone dies. However, when Oli throws the stone, he misses and it doesn’t land in the water, foreshadowing the revelation that he made the whole thing up about his dad dying.

The movie the family are watching when Oliver arrives at Saltburn

When Oliver arrives at Saltburn and goes to meet the family for the first time, he finds them spread out in the library half-watching Superbad on the TV. If you look past the fact that Superbad wasn’t actually released until 2007, an entire year after Saltburn is set, that movie is specifically used to foreshadow that Oliver isn’t who he says he is and is lying about his life and identify, just as the characters in Superbad are obtaining fake IDs and changing their identities. The specific scene the Catton family is watching is where the name McLovin is revealed to which Jonah Hill’s character replies: “McLovins never existed because that’s a made-up dumb fucking fairytale name,” the “fairytale” mirroring Oliver’s desire to live in a fantasy-scape of his own design at Saltburn.

Felix’s doppelganger walks past the window

Every single death in the movie was foreshadowed but it’s so subtle you’d be forgiven for missing it. Earlier on in the movie, when they’re all sat at the breakfast table Venetia tells a story about how Percy Shelley’s house keeper apparently saw him walk in front of the window even though he was dead. In this scene, Felix is sitting next to Venetia at the table but as she talks, a doppelganger of Felix wearing the exact same outfit can be seen walking in front of the window with doppelgangers often thought of as being an omen of death. This scene also mirrors that of later on in the movie when the butler struggles to close the curtains of the same window so that the family won’t see Felix’s body being wheeled past.

The song Oliver and Felix listen to whilst driving to his parent’s house

Whilst Felix drives Oliver to his parent’s house where all his lies are eventually exposed, Mr Brightside is playing on the car ride. Not only was this a massively popular song at the time, and still is now, but its a song about lying and deception foreshadowing that the web of lies Ollie has spun is about to become undone.

Venetia spilling her wine and Elspeth choking

Venetia and Elspeth’s death are then also foreshadowed, again whilst they’re sat at the table. As they hear Felix’s body being wheeled past the window by the coroner, Venetia tops up her wine but doesn’t stop when the glass is full, causing red wine to overflow all over the table. This mirrors the spilling of her blood when she dies in the bath a little later on. Whilst Venetia is endlessly pouring her wine, Elspeth chokes on her food again mirroring her own death where Oliver pulls out her breathing tube causing her to suffocate.

Saltburn, the new film by Emerald Fennell, is streaming on Amazon Prime now. For all the best film, music, reality TV and entertainment news, like Pop Culture Shrine on Facebook. 

Related articles recommended by this author:

• All the completely unforgivable historical inaccuracies in Saltburn

• The juicy production secrets and behind the scenes facts you need to know about Saltburn

• This Saltburn fan theory makes Oliver even more calculated than we first thought

Featured image via Amazon Prime.