FILM · 2000 · USA
Memento
- Directed by
- Christopher Nolan
- Runtime
- 113 min
- Studio
- Newmarket Films, Summit Entertainment, Team Todd
126 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.
126 Interesting Facts About Memento
Interesting Facts (40)
- #001
- #002
In an August 2007 article in The LA Times, Josh Friedman reported that executive producer Aaron Ryder was surprised when movie ratings group the MPAA listed "drug content" as one of the reasons for the film's R rating: "The only on-screen drug use involved a diabetic receiving insulin, Ryder said. He figures the board mistook the substance for heroin." Although in making this glib comment he perhaps forgot the scene that contains the snorting of a drug that is presumably not also insulin.
- #003
- #004
Christopher Nolan addresses the question some people have about how long Lenny can keep hold of certain memories. "He can keep things in mind as long as he pays attention, so depending on how much is being thrown at him, that time-span can vary." Nolan also states that throughout the middle of the film, while numerous things are happening, Lenny's memory gets shorter and shorter.
- #005
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- #007
Nolan notes that playing a more obvious surprise in the scene where Lenny discovers his tattoos would not fit what the film says about memory: 'The film says you can acquire information unconsciously through repetition.' This unconscious information is visible in Stephen Tobolowsky's performance, especially in the scene where Sammy's wife performs the final test.
- #008
Lenny's monologue about his condition was much longer in the script. Guy Pearce insisted on shortening it, and the moment became more flexible: 'Leonard is a blank page to a certain degree. We project things onto him, but we need something to hold on to. We need to see his point of view of himself.'
- #009
At around 1 hour 19 minutes, the idea that blood flows from Lenny's wife's head when she is shot by the attackers belongs to Guy Pearce. Although Nolan initially thought this would be too much, he accepted it once he saw the shot: 'It felt like his mind was leaking out. It was like the end of his past self.'
- #010
At around the 50th minute, Nolan wanted to create a lighter mood in the middle of the film. A change of tone was important so that the repeating structure would not become boring. He also wanted to add the traits of an action star dealing with short-term memory loss; that is why the moment Lenny breaks down the door of the wrong motel room came about.
- #011
Christopher Nolan says of the motel where Lenny stays, 'If M.C. Escher designed a motel, this is what it would be like.' The motel has an enclosed courtyard that prevents you from understanding where you are; the glassed-in lobby forces Lenny to interact with the receptionist. In the first interaction, Nolan was able to do several things at once: explain Lenny's condition, demonstrate the structural workings through the receptionist's dialogue, and give hints about the past. According to Nolan, the most frightening thing for Lenny is the feeling that he has interacted with these people before but cannot remember it.
- #012
- #013
In the first loop, which Nolan called a 'loop' for every scene, he wanted to convey the main elements that make up Lenny's character and the idea of repetition with an unforgettable image: 'In this first loop in time, we really wanted to do something unforgettable. A bullet to the head seemed like the best thing you could get.' He wanted to create a distinctive sound for the end of each loop: Teddy knocking on the door, Lenny inserting the magazine, and so on. In later sections he used pieces of scenes for the transitions, because the audience had by then grown used to the film's rhythm.
- #014
While the images at the beginning flow backwards, the sound flows forwards. Nolan did this to establish a convention for drawing the viewer into the story. All the shots in the opening were done using a reverse magazine, except for the bullet casing moving on the ground; the image of the casing was achieved by Nolan blowing on it.
- #015
- #016
In Nolan's commentary, the subject of continuity comes up; while dealing with an unusual structure, managing differences in continuity is difficult so that the viewer does not lose their bearings. He says one has to decide to give more importance to some continuity elements than to others. The cleanliness of Lenny's clothes and the age of the wounds on his face are specific examples Nolan cites.
- #017
There are four different commentary tracks in the last 20 minutes. The first is reached by skipping to this section with commentary on; the others by restarting the commentary. At the 1 hour 33 minute mark, one of three commentaries is chosen at random. In the first commentary, Nolan describes Lenny going down to the lobby and meeting Teddy; when Jimmy appears, his voice slows and begins to play in reverse. In the second commentary, Nolan emphasizes the importance of the scene in which an unreliable character explains everything; he notes that Teddy's license plate (SG13 7IU) is the postcode of the school he attended as a child. In the third commentary, Nolan claims that Teddy tells Lenny the truth about his wife. In the fourth commentary, he emphasizes how unreliable Teddy is; he says people are so hungry for answers that they do not question them.
- #018
In the Los Angeles Times (August 2007), Josh Friedman reported that producer Aaron Ryder was surprised the MPAA listed "drug content" for the R rating: "The only drug use on screen was a diabetic taking insulin." Ryder said he guessed the board had confused the substance with heroin, though he may have forgotten the scene featuring a substance snorted through the nose.
- #019
- #020
- #021
- #022
The electric shock test administered to Sammy Jankis is based on a real case, Henry Molaison (HM). HM experienced the same amnesia after epilepsy surgery; a doctor had shaken his hand with a buzzer that delivered repeated shocks, and after several attempts HM refused to shake hands. The test in the film shows that Sammy's condition is not exactly the same but that he would not be excluded from insurance coverage.
- #023
- #024
- #025
The film's now-defunct website otnemem.com was created by Jonathan Nolan. The main menu was a newspaper article describing a manhunt that begins when a cleaning crew finds 'suspicious items' in Lenny's room. Among the items were his file, Dodd's gun and 'dozens' of Polaroids; one belonged to Teddy's corpse. The article stated that Lenny had disappeared from a psychiatric facility two years earlier. Clicking certain words revealed notes, police reports and psychiatric evaluations.
- #026
- #027
- #028
In the Polaroid pushed under the door of Leonard's motel room, he points to a blank spot on his chest. He tells Natalie that this spot is reserved for use when he finds John G. In the final scene, Leonard imagines lying in bed with his wife; the blank spot now bears a tattoo reading 'I've done it'.
- #029
- #030
While Leonard watches television at Natalie's house, a picture of a needle is visible in the background along with a person wearing a white-collared shirt. In Sammy Jankis's story, Sammy injects his wife with insulin while watching television. This points to the possibility that Sammy's story actually belongs to Leonard himself. Additionally, the white-collared shirt in the background is the same shirt Leonard's wife wears in another scene.
- #031
When Teddy tells Leonard to write 'don't trust her' on Natalie's photograph (which Leonard later blacks out), he writes it in handwriting. All of Leonard's other notes are written in block capital letters. This is a clever method Leonard uses to please Teddy while also warning himself that it isn't true; even if he forgets that he wrote it himself, Leonard has been trained to trust his own handwriting, so when he sees something that doesn't resemble his normal writing, he immediately becomes suspicious and removes it.
- #032
Throughout the film, Leonard tattoos himself. While preparing his 'pen', he uses it like a syringe (flicking the needle, tapping the cylinder with his finger). This points to the fact that he is not Sammy Jenkis as he has convinced himself, but rather that he helped his wife commit suicide with insulin.
- #033
- #034
Christopher Nolan raises the question of how people know Lenny's condition if he has no short-term memory. According to Nolan, the film offers a theory of memory suggesting that information can be absorbed through various means. He wanted to present a range of different ways in which Lenny absorbs such information.
- #035
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- #037
When we first see Leonard's area map, we notice two streets that share a connection with Blue Velvet (1986). There is 'Booth Street'; the main villain in Blue Velvet is Frank Booth. The second notable street is 'Lincoln Street'; Jeffrey is explicitly told to stay away from this street, and in Blue Velvet, Dorothy Vallens's apartment is on this street. These are the only non-numerical streets, aside from 'Seventh Street'.
- #038
- #039
As Leonard hurries past a comic book shop, a prominent Batman emblem is visible in the window. Christopher Nolan would later direct the Dark Knight trilogy, while the Superman emblem in the same window points to Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, on which he served as producer or executive producer.
- #040
Production Story (22)
- #041
(at around 50 mins) At around 50 minutes, Christopher Nolan wanted to bring in a lighter mood throughout the middle of the film. He felt it was important to switch up the tone to keep the repetitive nature of the film's structure from becoming tedious. The director also wanted to bring in some of the trappings of an action star having to cope with the burdens of short-term memory loss. Hence the moment where Lenny smashes in the door to the wrong motel room.
- #042
- #043
- #044
- #045
The monologue Lenny gives regarding what he feels about his condition was originally much longer in the screenplay. Guy Pearce was very insistent on slimming it down, and while certain scenes could not be removed because of the structure of the film, this moment was somewhat expendable. "Leonard is a blank slate to a certain degree. We do sort of project things onto him, but we need something to hang onto. We need to see his view of himself."
- #046
Carrie-Anne Moss personally recommended Joe Pantoliano for the role of Teddy, having become good friends with him while they were working on The Matrix (1999). Christopher Nolan and his producers had reservations about this because they weren't sure Pantoliano's screen persona, often overtly villainous, was the right match for Teddy, but they met with him and decided his talent made him the right person for the part. Nolan later praised Pantoliano for having brought the right amount of subtlety to his performance as Teddy.
- #047
- #048
After being impressed by Carrie-Anne Moss's performance as Trinity in The Matrix (1999), Jennifer Todd suggested her for the part of Natalie. While Mary McCormack lobbied for the role, Sir Christopher Nolan decided to cast Moss as Natalie, saying, "She added an enormous amount to the role of Natalie that wasn't on the page."
- #049
The film's subject matter was conceived of when Christopher Nolan was joined by his brother Jonathan Nolan on a late summer cross-country road trip, as Christopher was moving to Los Angeles and Jonathan had time before returning to his studies at Georgetown to spend time with his brother and help with the move. By the time they arrived in L.A., the entire screenplay had been stated out loud between the brothers.
- #050
Aaron Eckhart, Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen, and Thomas Jane were all considered for the role of Leonard. Although Guy Pearce got the part, Sir Christopher Nolan would later work with Eckhart on The Dark Knight (2008). Years later, Pearce said in an interview that Nolan had also considered him for several of his other films, such as Batman Begins (2005) and The Prestige (2006). Pearce said he would have loved to become a "Nolan regular" (like Cillian Murphy or Sir Michael Caine), but he regretted that their cooperation remained limited to one film, allegedly because an executive at Warner Bros. bluntly told Pearce's agent that he was no fan of the actor, and would therefore never cast him. In 2025, Pearce watched this film again to prepare for a Q&A, and admitted that he was ashamed of his performance, "I'm having an existential crisis. I watched 'Memento' the other day and I'm still depressed. I'm shit in that movie... while it was playing I realized I hate what I did. And so all this stuff about an exec at Warners being why I've not worked with Chris again? It came crashing down. I know why I didn't work with Chris again - it's because I'm no good in 'Memento.'"
- #051
Stephen Tobolowsky has stated that during his audition for Sammy, he mentioned to Sir Christopher Nolan that he had experienced amnesia personally. A few years earlier, he had been given an experimental painkiller that induced amnesia for a surgery he had undergone. Tobolowsky said it may have helped him get the part, because no other actor would likely have had his first-hand experience.
- #052
- #053
Cinematographer Mark Vargo turned down an interview with Sir Christopher Nolan because he didn't understand the script. He later admitted that this was a mistake. Wally Pfister, who got the job, had previously worked with Vargo as a camera operator. He later admitted to Vargo that he didn't understand the script, either.
- #054
Brad Pitt expressed interest in signing up to play Leonard, but he ultimately had to pass on the project due to other commitments. Afterwards, Sir Christopher Nolan did not consider any other "A-list actors" because he realized that having a talented but lesser-known and less expensive lead actor would allow for the film's budget to be more evenly distributed. That process led to Nolan nearly casting Aaron Eckhart in the role, but he eventually gave the part to Guy Pearce. Nolan would go on to work with Eckhart a few years later in The Dark Knight (2008).
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- #057
The Limited Edition DVD and the standard Region 2 edition allow the movie to be watched in the exact chronological order of the events in the film. The first couple of scenes of the regular cut appear normal in this version, meaning they are not reversed. However, this version of the movie on Disc 2 is quite difficult to reach: the user must answer several questions and solve a puzzle, and forward, reverse, and chapter skip capabilities are disabled.
- #058
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- #061
Contains a major spoiler — show
There are four possible commentaries that play over the last 20 minutes, starting when Lenny finds the burnt Polaroids in his pocket. The first is accessed if you skip ahead to within these last 20 minutes with the commentary on or if you turn it on after the 1 hour 33 minute mark has been passed. The rest are accessed by playing the commentary track from the start. Once the 1 hour 33 minute mark hits, one of the three commentaries is randomly selected. FIRST ENDING: The commentary continues as normal with Christopher Nolan describing the blocking of Lenny walking down to the lobby and meeting Teddy. Nolan mentions the film is loaded with "direct repetitions" and "echoes" that create a kind of deliberate confusion in the mind of the audience, second-guessing what they have or have not seen. These two points are the same with the other three commentaries. However, once Jimmy shows up at the abandoned building, Nolan's voice drops out, slows, and starts playing in reverse, which continues through the end. SECOND ENDING: Nolan feels it's important to come to a scene of exposition where a disreputable character lays everything out and answers a lot of questions. He likes how with the structure of this film, the audience would be in a different mind-set about whether or not to believe this explanation. Nolan, Guy Pearce, and Joe Pantoliano tried hard to cram as much information into the smallest amount of time possible. Nolan also mentions that Pantoliano filmed this scene with a badly hurt back, which he sustained filming his death scene. He mentions it is important to realize this grand reveal is one of several similar conversations Teddy has had, but Lenny, like the audience, appears to be having it for the first time, suggesting what is life-changing for him has become monotonous for Teddy. As an aside, he says that SG13 7IU, Teddy's license plate number, is the postal code for the school where the director went as a boy. THIRD ENDING: Nolan claims Teddy is telling Lenny the truth about what really happened to his wife (the insulin overdose, finding the second attacker, etc.). FOURTH ENDING: Nolan explicitly underlines how untrustworthy Teddy is, claiming he has lied to and manipulated Lenny the whole film, having known Lenny for so long that he knows how to effortlessly push his buttons: "What's interesting to me in terms of genre is that this scene of exposition occurs in so many other movies. It is a fairly standard device that the bad guy comes along at the end of the movie and gives us the exposition, and to me it's amazing that people don't question that character. They just accept the answers because they're so desperate for answers in the story."
- #062
Contains a major spoiler — show
Chronology: When numbering the scenes chronologically and then sorting them as they appear in the film, the pattern becomes clearer. The letters A-V represent the color scenes (with A happening chronologically first and V chronologically last), and the numbers 1-22 represent the black-and-white scenes chronologically. The scenes appear in the film like this: 1, V, 2, U, 3, T, 4, S, 5, R, 6, Q...20, C, 21, B, 22/A. The two types of scenes alternate. The black-and-white scenes (numbers) start from the beginning and work forward to the climax at 22/A, while the color scenes (letters) work backward from the climax at 22/A. The climax scene (22/A) changes to color halfway through, showing the convergence of the two storylines.
Behind the Scenes (25)
- #063
- #064
The interior of Lenny's hotel room was a set. Christopher Nolan notes how expressive but realistic production designer Patti Podesta made the room, as the director wanted to make a "true update to a film noir." Likewise, he had cinematographer Wally Pfister keep the light from the windows in an effort to make the room feel more realistic.
- #065
"If M.C. Escher was going to design a motel, this would be it," says Christopher Nolan about the motel where Lenny is staying. He notes the motel has a closed courtyard that keeps you from being able to tell where you are. The glassed-in lobby also forced Lenny to interact with the clerk. With the first interaction we see between Lenny and the motel clerk, Nolan was able to do several things. The scene allowed Lenny to spell out exactly what his condition is, the dialogue from the clerk indicates the condition and the way the film structurally works are connected, and it allowed them to hint at Lenny's background. "That's what's most frightening for Leonard," says Nolan. "The continual impression that he's had an interaction with these people before that he can't tap into."
- #066
- #067
(at around 58 mins) At around 58 minutes, there was a lot of questioning during filming concerning the relevance of the scene between Lenny and the prostitute. However, Christopher Nolan felt it was important to show a moment of Lenny manipulating himself, "his present self creating a situation for his future self to arrive at," as Nolan explains. The actors during filming weren't exactly sure how to wrap their performance around the scene, as evidenced in the very real awkwardness that plays out between the two of them.
- #068
- #069
- #070
- #071
Even though the images in the beginning are running backwards, the sound runs forward. Christopher Nolan notes he did this to keep some kind of convention to the opening moments to help draw the audience into the story. All of the shots in the opening were done using a reverse mag, essentially the film was loaded in backwards, except for the image of the shell casing moving across the floor. This was done by Nolan blowing on the casing.
- #072
Continuity comes up in Christopher Nolan's commentary, the idea that when dealing with unusual structure it becomes very tricky handling distinctions in the continuity to keep the audience from becoming disoriented. Nolan mentions how tricky it was to decide the importance of some continuity aspects over others. The cleanness of Lenny's clothes and the age of the wounds on his face are specific examples Nolan points out.
- #073
- #074
- #075
(at around 34 mins) At around 34 minutes, the scene where Lenny is explaining to Natalie the different ways his memory works incorporates actual ways in which Christopher Nolan had explained the project to people before shooting. The idea of knowing how a wooden table would sound when you knock on it and other "feel of the world" aspects allowed Nolan to get people into Lenny's head when he was describing it.
- #076
The idea of shooting the "present" sequences in black and white was to give the film a documentary feel. Much of the black and white sequences were shot documentary-style as well, with Guy Pearce improvising dialogue and Christopher Nolan and editor Dody Dorn cutting everything tightly. Nolan mentions the documentary feel allowed him to give the audience an objective view of Lenny's character. He wanted to put the audience in Lenny's mindset, to show right from the start how people might control and manipulate him. Also, like Lenny, the audience is put in a position of quickly trying to assess Teddy's character and what the manner of their relationship is. Later on in the film, the black and white scenes moved from being objective to more subjective like the color scenes. These later black and white scenes are designed more to put the audience in Lenny's emotional state rather than give information.
- #077
(at around 5 mins) At around 5 minutes, during Teddy's line "You don't have a clue, you freak!", director Sir Christopher Nolan felt that Joe Pantoliano (Teddy) did not quite nail the end of the line, so he decided to re-record the last two words to his liking, delivering them himself. Therefore, in the final film, the words "you freak", as we hear them, are actually being said not by Pantoliano, but by Nolan impersonating Pantoliano's voice. Pantoliano was unaware of the dubbing until an interview for Memento (2001).
- #078
- #079
For the first "loop," as Christopher Nolan refers to each scene, the director wanted to throw in all the main elements that would make up Lenny's character as well as the idea of repetition with a very jarring and memorable image. "With this first loop in time, we wanted to have something truly unforgettable. A gunshot to the head seemed about as good as you can get." Nolan also mentions a key element to each loop was in the sound. He wanted to create a distinct sound for the end of each loop, Teddy knocking on the door to the motel, Lenny putting the clip into the gun, to give each section its own identity. Later in the film, Nolan used fragments of scene to transition, as the audience would then be comfortable with the film's rhythm.
- #080
- #081
- #082
- #083
- #084
The interior of Lenny's hotel room was a set. Nolan notes that production designer Patti Podesta made the room striking but realistic; he wanted to make 'a real update' of 'film noir'. He asked cinematographer Wally Pfister to preserve the light coming through the windows, so that the room felt more realistic.
- #085
The "present" scenes were shot in black and white to give them a documentary feel. Guy Pearce improvised his dialogue, while Christopher Nolan and editor Dody Dorn cut everything tightly. Nolan says this feel gives the audience an objective view of Lenny's character. The aim was to put the audience inside Lenny's mind and show how people manipulate him. In later sections, the black-and-white scenes become subjective; they are used less to convey information than to draw the audience into Lenny's emotional state.
- #086
The importance of the scene between Lenny and the prostitute was questioned during filming. Nolan thought it was important to show a moment in which Lenny manipulates himself: 'his present self creating a situation that his future self will arrive at.' The actors were unsure how to adapt their performances to the scene's oddity.
- #087
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 19 mins) The blood coming out of Lenny's head when he is hit by his wife's attackers was Guy Pearce's idea, as well. Christopher Nolan thought it would be a bit too much at first, but then acquiesced to it after seeing it shot. "It felt like his mind leaking out. It felt like the end of his past self."
Characters & Cast (2)
- #088
- #089
Stephen Tobolowsky has stated that during his audition for Sammy, he had mentioned to Sir Christopher Nolan that he had experienced amnesia personally. A few years earlier, he was given an experimental pain killer that induced amnesia for a surgery he had undergone. Tobolowsky said it may have helped him get the part, because no other actor would likely have had his first-hand experience.
Easter Eggs & References (21)
- #090
- #091
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- #094
When we first see Leonard's map of the area, we can see two streets that have commonality with Blue Velvet (1986). There is a "Booth Street", the primary antagonist in Blue Velvet is Frank Booth. A second street, worthy of note, is "Lincoln Street", which Jeffrey is explicitly told to avoid, and where the apartment of Dorothy Vallens resides in Blue Velvet. These are the only roads that are not nominally numerical, for example "Seventh Street".
- #095
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- #099
- #100
(at around 6 mins) At around 6 minutes, early in the film, Leonard thumbs through the Gideon Bible in his motel room and pauses at Leviticus. This book of the Bible is the third book of the Torah (the Pentateuch) and of the Old Testament, also known as the Third Book of Moses. It contains details of law and ritual.
- #101
In one scene, Leonard quickly passes in front of a comic book store. The Batman emblem is displayed prominently on the store's window. Sir Christopher Nolan later directed Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). There is also a Superman emblem in the same store window; Nolan was producer of Man of Steel (2013) and is executive producer of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).
- #102
- #103
The name Jimmy G. is the name Dr. Oliver Sacks used to refer to one of his patients in his book 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat'. Jimmy G., like Leonard, suffers from retrograde and anterograde amnesia and cannot form new memories. Throughout the film, Leonard searches for a man whose name might be John or James G., and in fact one of his victims is such a 'Jimmy G.'
- #104
- #105
- #106
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 30 mins) At around 1 hour 30 minutes, after his wife's death, Sammy (Stephen Tobolowsky) is shown sitting in a mental institution. Briefly, just after someone walks in front of him and before the scene cuts back to Leonard (Guy Pearce) on the phone, Sammy is actually replaced by Leonard sitting in the same chair. This supports the conclusion that the tragic end of Sammy's story is actually an event from Leonard's own past, just as Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) later tries to convince him.
- #107
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 7 mins) At around 1 hour and 7 minutes, when Teddy tells Leonard to write "do not trust her" on Natalie's picture (which he later crosses out), he writes it in cursive. All of Leonard's other notes were in block print. It is a clever way for Leonard to appease Teddy but also warn himself that it is untrue; even after forgetting that he wrote it himself, Leonard has trained himself to trust his own handwriting, so seeing something that doesn't resemble his usual writing makes him immediately suspicious of it, so he removes it.
- #108
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 21 mins) At around 1 hour 21 minutes, while Leonard is watching television at Natalie's, a picture of a needle with a person wearing a white V-neck shirt in the background can be seen. In the story of Sammy Jankis, Sammy injects his wife with insulin while he watches television. This alludes to the possibility that Sammy Jankis' story is really Leonard's own. Moreover, the white V-neck in the background is the same shirt that Leonard's wife wears in another scene.
- #109
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 26 mins) At around 1 hour 26 minutes, during Leonard's third and final conversation with the anonymous caller, his fingers hover over the numbers 555-0134. This is Teddy's phone number, which is on the bottom of his photograph, thus hinting that Leonard is actually talking to Teddy.
- #110
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 22 mins) At around 1 hour 22 minutes, the Polaroid slipped under Leonard's motel room door shows him pointing at a bare spot on his chest. He tells Natalie it is reserved for when he finds John G. In the final scene, at around 1 hour 50 minutes, Leonard imagines lying in bed with his wife. The bare spot now has a tattoo that says "I've done it."
Deeper Meaning (13)
- #111
The medical condition experienced by Leonard in this film is a real condition called anterograde amnesia, the inability to form new memories after damage to the hippocampus. During the 1950s, doctors treated some forms of epilepsy by removing parts of the hippocampus, resulting in the same memory problems.
- #112
Christopher Nolan addresses the question some people have about how long Lenny can keep hold of certain memories. "He can keep things in mind as long as he pays attention, so depending on how much is being thrown at him, that time-span can vary." Nolan also states that throughout the middle of the film, while numerous things are happening, Lenny's memory gets shorter and shorter.
- #113
Many of the scenes with Lenny and his wife, played by Jorja Fox, were meant to evoke a sense of a realistic relationship, not necessarily an ideal one. Christopher Nolan felt most of the memories Lenny would hold on to would be the bittersweet interactions that create a very real marriage.
- #114
(at around 32 mins) At around 32 minutes, the test given to Sammy Jankis (Stephen Tobolowsky) involving electrified objects is based on a real-life case study of Henry Molaison, referred to as HM for privacy reasons until his death in 2008. HM suffered from the same form of amnesia following an experimental surgery to treat severe epilepsy. A doctor repeatedly shook HM's hand with a joy buzzer, shocking him every time. After a few trials, HM refused to shake hands. The test shown in the movie illustrates that Sammy's condition was not identical to the real-life case study, but would not have excluded him from insurance coverage.
- #115
Christopher Nolan mentions during the scene where Lenny is discovering his tattoos that the more obvious way to play it would be total surprise, but, as he notes, that wouldn't be true to what the film says about memory. "What the film says is that you can take on knowledge unconsciously through repetition, through habit." The same angle on this unconscious knowledge is seen later in the film in Stephen Tobolowsky's performance, particularly in the scene where Sammy's wife gives him his final test.
- #116
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- #118
Christopher Nolan brings up the question people have about how Lenny knows he has a condition if he has no short-term memory. According to Nolan, the film presents a theory on memory that information can be absorbed in various ways. He wanted to present a number of different ways in which Lenny absorbed such information.
- #119
Christopher Nolan was fascinated by the idea of Lenny's past self and his present self conversing, something that was a key element to Jonathan Nolan's short story. "I was fascinated by the idea that somebody who could not create these memories would essentially be divided by the past self and the present self, that connection between those two aspects of himself would be broken."
- #120
Christopher Nolan feels that someone with Lenny's condition would cling onto the long-term memories they have, so he wanted to show early on the value Lenny puts on the fragments of memory he has about his wife. Nolan also wanted to instill a true feeling of memory of a loved one, showing pieces of a person rather than coherent scenes.
- #121
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- #123
Chronology: When the scenes are numbered chronologically and arranged in the order they appear in the film, the pattern becomes clear. The letters A-V represent the color scenes (A being chronologically first, V last), while the numbers 1-22 represent the black-and-white scenes. In the film, the scenes appear as follows: 1, V, 2, U, 3, T, 4, S, 5, R, 6, Q...20, C, 21, B, 22/A. The two types of scenes alternate. The black-and-white scenes begin at the start and progress toward the climax at 22/A, while the color scenes move backward from the climax at 22/A. The climax scene (22/A) turns to color at its midpoint, showing that the two storylines merge.
Career & Awards (3)
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Memento was considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant by the US Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2017. It is Christopher Nolan's first movie to be preserved in National Film Registry. It was also the first non documentary film from the 2000s to be preserved.
- #126
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