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For the 1971 version, see Henry Salt
"I'm sorry, I don't speak American."
— Rupert to Mr. Teavee when he uses American lingo

Rupert Salt is the wealthy father of Veruca Salt and the husband of Angina Salt. He is the owner, founder and president of Salt's Nuts.[1]

He resides in Buckinghamshire, England and lives in a mansion with his wife and daughter. According to the movies, he's willing to spend a ludicrous amount of money to please his daughter. He and his daughter are the third Golden Ticket winners to be outed from the tour.

Finding the Second Golden Ticket[]

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The Salts are interviewed

When five hidden Golden Tickets were announced to the public, his daughter Veruca demanded to get one of them, saying that she has to have one of them. Complying with the demand, he went over to his factory and ordered his staff to start unwrapping chocolate bars in the hopes of finding one of the Golden Tickets. However, to his and Veruca's dismay, none of the thousands of the chocolate bars he bought contained the Golden Ticket. However, one of his staff managed to find the Golden Ticket, but wanting to keep the ticket for herself the worker attempted to hide the ticket. Noticing this, he grabbed the Golden Ticket from the worker's hand and shortly afterwards handed it to his daughter who then demanded another pony. He then was interviewed by several reporters.

The Tour[]

On the day of the factory tour, he stood outside the gate with his daughter at exactly one minute before the tour group could enter the factory gates.

In the factory, Veruca wants a squirrel and demands her father get one for her. Her father tries to say that she already has many marvelous pets, she lists them all andshe says defiantly that she wants a squirrel. When Wonka explains that they are not for sale, Veruca becomes angry and tells her father that she wants one. She then proceeds to go under the gate that guards the squirrels' workplace and tries to steal a squirrel from the Nut Room. At first, all of the squirrels look at her in bewilderment, however, when Veruca reaches for one, all of them start to leap at her and attack her, as well as clawing and holding her down. As she screams for her father, Mr. Salt becomes fearful when Wonka tells him that the garbage chute in the middle of the room leads to an incinerator, and Mr. Salt panics as Wonka tries to find the correct key for the gate.

Meanwhile, the squirrel that she tried to grab crawls onto her chest in front of her face and knocks onto her head, before announcing to all the squirrels that she is a "bad nut". The squirrels then proceed to drag Veruca to the garbage chute, with Veruca desperately trying to clasp to the floor, her nails scraping on the floor and leaving scratch marks. The squirrels then let go as Veruca, screaming, slides and gets sent down the garbage chute to her fate. The squirrels then go back to their work, as if nothing had happened.

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Leaving the factory covered in trash

At the end of the tour, Veruca is the third to leave the factory, with both her and her father being covered in garbage. The two were spared from being burned by the incinerator as Wonka had informed the last two families in the group that the incinerator was broken. When Veruca sees the Great Glass Elevator, she demands that her father buys one for her. However, since her father was reformed by the Oompa-Loompas, from whom he learned a valuable parenting lesson, he puts his foot down, refusing to cater to his daughter's whims. In addition, he firmly and sternly responds that she was going to be receiving nothing but a bath that day, so that's final. Not only did he stop giving her anything she wants, Mr. Salt realized that he and his wife had been constantly spoiling their daughter. Veruca then pouts, with her father giving her an angry glare for her bad attitude.

Trivia[]

  • His name is only mentioned on a business card prop.
  • The Nut Sorting Room room may be seen as a parallel to the area where he is seen telling his factory workers to open Wonka Bars. His workers can be seen as akin to the squirrels, opening things, much like his workers opened the Wonka Bars. In both areas, Mr. Salt watches the workers from above, and the fact that doesn't bother to save Veruca when she is attacked by squirrels can be seen as an allusion to how he is psychologically used to watching people from above like a bystander, and perhaps literally/metaphorically "looking down" on others. Still, his descent from upstairs to downstairs can be seen as a metaphor for Mr. Salt beginning to empathize with the struggles of the "lower" classes.
  • Willy Wonka seems to lock the door behind Mr. Salt when he goes down, suggesting Wonka never expected Salt to return, and Wonka possibly even trained a squirrel to push Mr. Salt into the hole when he is close to it.
  • Rupert Salt has been praised by viewers of the film for his development, as he has a character arc and learns a lesson by the end of the film, becoming sterner with Veruca.
  • The script says he is 55 years old. However, his actor (James Fox) was 65 while filming.

External links[]

Gallery[]

Characters
Golden Ticket winners

Augustus Gloop (1971)
Veruca Salt (1971)
Violet Beauregarde (1971)
Mike Teavee (1971)
Charlie Bucket (1971)

Families

GLOOP: Mrs. Gloop (1971) • Mr. Gloop (1971)
SALT: Rupert Salt (1971) • Angina Salt
BEAUREGARDE: Scarlett BeauregardeSam Beauregarde
TEAVEE: Norman TeaveeLucy Teavee (1971)
BUCKET: Grandpa Joe (1971) • Helen BucketWilliam BucketGrandma JosephineGrandpa GeorgeGrandma Georgina
WONKA: Willy Wonka (19712023) • Wilbur WonkaMamma

Other characters
Arthur SlugworthFickelgruberLoftyMr. TurkentineMr. WilkinsonNoodleOompa-LoompaPrince PondicherryProdnoseThe Shopkeeper
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