Memento | Canadian First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Movie Review | Movie Commentary

[@Cadinho93]

"Now...where was I?" is one of my favorite cut to black endings of any film. Also, the brilliant thing about this film is how the narrative structure puts you into the POV of the protagonist.

[@Serai3]

It's right up there with "(poof) He's gone."

[@faustobarbosalemos9134]

The most brilliant thing is that you feel like you have the same problem. You have just seen what is going to happen but you don't remember

[@stobe187]

I still think this is Nolan's best movie. Not an ounce of fat in the screenplay, pulls you in right away and keeps you locked in, great performances.. Sometimes I wish Nolan would return to making "smaller" films like this, his modern work is always so utterly massive in scope.

[@Ranca666]

Couldn't agree more. This movie is so raw and energetic, you kinda miss this feeling on movies with gigantic budgets.

[@AmShagar490]

Fully agree. This movie is amazing, an ingenious concept turned into a great story. I feel like all his newer movies are just attempts to recreate this - and he does come up with interesting concepts every time, but the stories he uses them in are lackluster, forced or downright nonsensical, and he just uses expensive effects and cool visuals to try and make up for it.

[@stobe187]

@@Ranca666 Yeah, the humanity of the characters sometimes gets a bit lost under all the spectacle. Memento doesn't have that issue.

[@streetlevelaudio4388]

Agreed, this movie opened up a whole can of worms for me… made me realise I was more into cinema than my peers….

[@omegashinra7672]

Yeah, by far my favourite Nolan film. It's just so tightly made and to the point.

[@larryjennings1946]

24:39 "Is she possibly the most manipulative person we've ever seen now?" Turns out she isn't even the most manipulative person in the movie you're currently watching lol

[@ronaldlau9363]

Indeed. Out of the three main characters she turned out to be the least manipulative.

[@Soulsphere001]

@@ronaldlau9363 It's kinda understandable that Teddy manipulates Leonard, since from Teddy's perspective Leonard will never stop killing people anyway. Still, it would have been better for Teddy to get Leonard into some kinda mental institute or something like that.

[@David-cg1lh]

If his brothers story that the movie is based on is canon he already was in one and escaped. ​@@Soulsphere001

[@d.w.strangeman4963]

​@@Soulsphere001Leonard was in therapy. When you see Sammy in the hospital it's Leonard. Just a flash-cut of him as the nurse passed.

[@BrandonBlume]

Lenny was the most manipulative to himself in the end.

[@AxeloftheKey]

The thing that blew my mind in this film was when I realized that loud noises trigger him forgetting, because that's what woke him up when his wife was being killed. So every time someone slams the door or makes a loud noise, he's back at that moment of waking up.

[@alexle6105]

Fundamentally it's a shift or drift in attention. He's operating off of working memory which is a form of attention, you are merely holding stuff in your mind but it operates like trying to keep plates spinning, if you suddenly get distracted all the plates fall. Any unexpected shift in focus whether it is from sound, sight or anything else will make him forget.

[@MovieMaker76]

There's a quick jump cut where he is Sammy when we see Sammy in the hospital.

[@EShelby2127]

Black and White scenes...

[@Itwasalwaysme_Noone]

"Remember Sammy Jennings" is the MOST important tattoo of Lenny. He consciously made that tattoo and weaved this whole fake story, just so he can relieve himself and handle the burden of his wife's death. It's so important, that it's the only/first tattoo visible to him at all times. Every time he see's his hand, he's reminded of it Imagine how this started. This was a conscious decision, to make the tattoo, to construct the whole story, to persist on building the habit of blending the two memories together, just to rewrite on his brain what hurt him the most, his own involvement in his wife's death. He successfully rewrote that memory on his brain and then started hunting for his victims.

[@w415800]

With his condition he shouldn't be able to remember his wife's death, the Sammy story enables him to do so, and I believe this proves his condition is psychological, not physical, similar to Leo's character in Shutter Island.

[@MrGpschmidt]

*Jankis

[@jhornacek]

Also, the "Remember Sammy Jankis" tattoo is the only one written in cursive. We know that Leonard writes all of his notes and tattoos in printed letters. He writes "do not trust her" in cursive on Natalie's photo because he doesn't believe that note - he's only doing it because Teddy is forcing him to. So the fact that "Remember Sammy Jankis" is written in cursive is a hint to the audience that we should not trust the Sammy story.

[@elrac7333]

​@@w415800as that story implied he should be able to get new reflexive memory. For Sammy in the story he should have eventually known not to touch the shapes that would shock him. I think he somehow learned to tell that story whenever he saw that tattoo, as a reflex.

[@Mark-xx3gh]

@@jhornacekI never noticed that, thanks!

[@Wrencher_86]

33:04 The whole premise of the movie is that memory is a (very) fallible thing. Leonard is making a choice to remember things a certain way to give himself purpose. People do this all the time to cope with trauma, deal with insecurities or just to make their world a more comfortable place. The line between reality and your perception is as blurry as you want it to be.

[@MrFredstt]

Yep. Everyone has memories far back enough that aren't exactly accurate and have been warped over time

[@Skullzrapper]

"How can I heal when I can't feel time?" is such a profound line. What a movie!

[@kblixt]

His final line "Then YOU can be my John G" hints at self-awareness of his condition and a willingness to continue his hunt despite potentially knowing the truth

[@notperfectedyet7998]

Ahhh, the early 2000s with hidden Easter eggs extras on DVDs. Those were the days.

[@ThreadBomb]

I loved DVDs but hated content that was locked behind trickery. I paid for it, so should be able to watch it without jumping through hoops.

[@matthewvade6553]

I miss those days. The first one I can remember was the surprise appearance by Spiderman on the Xmen DVD, but my favorite will always be the Gollum MTV Award acceptance speech on the Two Towers Special Edition. I remember seeing that live when it first happened, and until it got posted online on KZbin and the like, that DVD was the only place to see it.

[@jp3813]

@@ThreadBomb If the DVD is already brimming w/ content, then I'm sure you already got your money's worth even w/o that hidden bonus.

[@tylerfoster6267]

One thing that stands out to me watching reactions to Memento is how often Natalie's motives are misunderstood. Many people come away from the film thinking of her as a villain, and she does manipulate Leonard in a particularly cruel and hateful way, but consider the story from her perspective: Leonard shows up at the bar driving her boyfriend's car and wearing his clothes. I don't know if you're correct that she suspects Leonard of murdering Jimmy, but she certainly knows that Leonard was the last person to see him. Soon after, Dodd, Jimmy's boss, confronts Natalie, demanding she pay back the money that Jimmy had on him when he died (Leonard does various things in Natalie's house that are shown in a quick montage after she leaves the first time, so we can imagine that she really does go somewhere that time, and is gone maybe an hour). While she is not a nice person or an honest person, per se, her decision to manipulate him in that moment is something she does out of necessity for her own survival. She understands that Leonard's condition is real, and thus knows she cannot find out what happened to Jimmy or his money from Leonard, and that Dodd will hurt her if she doesn't do something about him, so she uses Leonard to get rid of Dodd, which makes sense because Leonard is also the reason Dodd is on her case. In their last scene together in the diner, she does show a bit of resentment toward Leonard, because she seems to have accepted that Jimmy is not coming back and knows Leonard is somehow responsible for it, but she also has some pity for Leonard, thanks to his condition. In the end, I think her level of moral or ethical ambiguity is more or less the same as Leonard and Teddy -- everyone is trying to get what they want out of other people. Also, FWIW, she only vaguely suspects Teddy of being part of the reason Jimmy has disappeared. When her information leads to Teddy, that is not her doing or part of her plan, because she's simply having a friend run the license plate that Leonard himself gives to her, which he intentionally wrote down to frame Teddy. As far as the question of how long Leonard's memory lasts, you seemed to get it eventually, but I think it's completely arbitrary. What starts and stops his memory is when his chain of thought is broken, which can happen for any number of reasons. A great example is when Leonard is trying to write down the fact that Natalie coerced him into hitting her. The car door slams, which is a surprising sound that instinctively makes Leonard stop thinking about looking for a pen and look at Natalie coming in the house instead, and in that moment, his memory goes. Another fun thing to look for throughout the movie is how many times Teddy/John tries to get Jimmy's car away from Leonard, because he knows the money is in the trunk. The limited edition DVD is not expensive. While it is called a "Limited Edition," that was mostly a decorative title, and it was a wide-release DVD. It's got a very cool package design, which is meant to look like Leonard's medical file, and the "puzzles" extend to the entire DVD menu design. All of the menus are designed to look like an elaborate series of psychological puzzles, and nothing is labeled. There is a sticky note inside the package that says "Watch" which is a hint that this option on the main menu of disc 1 plays the movie. Everything else blends into the test, including all of the extras on Disc 2, so you have to click around and figure stuff out to find the bonus features.

[@tylerfoster6267]

Also, I am surprised that nobody mentioned it yet here on KZbin: The last time you see Sammy Jankis in the movie, sitting in the mental hospital, looking serene, watch closely. At the end of the scene, someone passes in front of Sammy, and for a brief moment when the person has finished passing, Sammy has been replaced by Leonard.

[@jhornacek]

@@tylerfoster6267 In most reactions to this movie, the reactors are discussing the scene and sometimes miss this split-second shot of Leonard in the institution.

[@mojoshivers]

Classic Nolan. It’s still one of the trippier concepts to wrap a plot around. But unlike Inception or Tenet, this one is actually a straight forward plot once it’s put into chronological order. Even then, Guy Pearce puts on one hell of a performance because you totally buy his condition and his inner turmoil.

[@dg-my9pn]

What are you talking about Inception is in chronological order and it's not hard to understand.

[@rabidfollower]

If the events' chronology is A to Z, then this movie shows the events in this order: Z, A, Y, B, X, C, W, D, V, E, ..., until the two parallel opposite timelines meet in the middle. It's a very unique non-linear style of storytelling.

[@prestonpastor9503]

I think on the DVD extras there is an interview with Nolan and he says that the movie is actually very linear since cannot remove any scene as each depend on the one prior and after. Think also said that since there are two separate timeliness woth black and white moving forward and the color scenes moving backward. It's a great interview and also talks about his brother writing thr shirt story and them writing the screenplay

[@17thknight]

There's so many details on re-watches that make a lot more sense, but more than anyone I think Natalie is the most unfairly maligned on a first watch. From the moment she first meets Leonard she knows for a fact that he killed her boyfriend. She understands his condition she believes it exists but she can't get over the fact that he killed Jimmy. She's filled with anger that she doesn't know what to do with because she can't do anything to Teddy who she doesn't know and Leonard who she does know she knows for a fact was manipulated by Teddy. So she's in this position of being filled with anger towards someone who doesn't deserve it and who wouldn't even remember if she accused him of the murder. When you view events chronologically and you see her true arc, you realize that after the incident with Dodd she begins to feel an enormous amount of guilt for what she did to Leonard and she goes out of her way to be very kind to him from that point on.

[@MrFredstt]

I agree. Also that in the end Lenny is the most manipulative person to himself and also causes the most damage. Him knowingly setting himself up to go after yet another person was chilling. Teddy was right and Lenny will never stop coming up with knew stories to kill more people

[@neilbiggs1353]

The guy at the motel front desk has a truly great line of exposition: "It's all backward. I mean, you know what you're doing but you don't know why..." He basically explains the structure of the film, but at the same time it's a very natural reaction from someone hearing about the condition that Leonard has. This is one of my favourite films and it has a weird link to another film I love, Awakenings. The original short story by Jonathan Nolan (Chris's brother) was inspired by a chapter in the book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat". It was a series of case studies by Neurologist Oliver Sacks, and in 'The Lost Mariner', a former sailor has Korsakov's syndrome meaning they can't make new memories. He has done a number of other books (all fascinating) including Awakenings which is almost a biopic of Oliver Sacks

[@jp3813]

Mental conditioning is a critical part of Lenny's system, which was touched upon in the scenes where Sammy's getting electric shocks to train his instincts. After his wife's overdose, Lenny was stuck in an institution until Teddy gave him the purpose of vengeance. This drive is what allowed him to condition his brain into being aware that he has a memory problem as well as eventually convince himself that Sammy was the one w/ a diabetic wife in order to keep believing that the assault resulted in murder. Finally getting revenge would've effectively concluded that motivation and likely lead him back to the institution. Hence, his quest must continue as far as he's concerned.

[@charlize1253]

Early on, he says that "Sammy" can learn from repetition "which is completely different than short-term memory."

[@jp3813]

@@charlize1253 He said, "Even with total short-term memory loss Sammy should have learned instinctively to stop picking up the wrong objects. Other cases responded to the conditioning, Sammy didn't respond at all. It suggested that his condition was psychological not physical.....Conditioning didn't work for Sammy, so he became helpless. But it works for me. I live the way Sammy couldn't. Habit and routine make my life possible. Conditioning. Acting on instinct."

[@morrislary4576]

This movie is one of my favorites - a truly original mindbender. And to be precise, short-term memory runs about 15 minutes, after which they get "downloaded" into long-term. The head injury described (which can be a real thing) blocks that download, so short-term memories made after the injury are just lost, while all previous long-term memories remain intact. I'm guessing sometimes he does his own tats as a matter of urgency - he wants to get the information down while it's still in his short-term memory, when it's too late or too far to get to a tattoo place. And as a side note - shout out to Stephen Tobolowsky and Harriet Sansom Harris. They absolutely killed their subplot as the Jankis's. Two very underrated character actors.

[@HermanVonPetri]

"Stephen Tobolowsky and Harriet Sansom Harris" Absolutely! Before seeing this film I hadn't seen Tobolowsky in anything but "Groundhog Day", and I had no idea he did anything other than comic side characters. The pathos from both of them here is heart wrenching.

[@dubiumguy]

The way Nolan tells the story is with the black and white scenes chronologically from before he kills Jimmy, and the colour scenes in reverse order from after he kills Jimmy. The slow transition from black and white to colour at 30:55 is a great way of showing that the two story threads meet.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

Most people miss the fade from black and white to color because it was perfectly timed to match with the colors appearing to the polaroid picture.

[@brent415ful]

​@@MikkoRantalainen I still miss it and I know it's coming lol

[@cashflowhustles]

My first time ever hearing about the color fade and I've been rewatching this movie for over 20 years.

[@DemNiko]

One of my favourite little things in this movie that I missed the first time is, that we see in the last shot with his wife that he actually got a tattoo "I've done it" on his chest. To remind himself that he got the burglars. And then in the Polaroid of himself he's actually pointing towards this spot on his chest being all happy, but there is nothing there. His brain chose to not see it to be able to keep going and chasing the next guy 🤯 Edit: at 12:22 Natalie even asks about that spot and he says that it's still empty. We don't see if there is anything because she covers it with her hand.

[@dubiumguy]

...or more sinisterly, he got the tattoo deliberately removed.

[@jhornacek]

Pretty sure that final shot of Leonard and his wife in bed with the I'VE DONE IT is not an actual memory, just Leonard imagining himself having completed his mission and his wife is still alive.

[@coldflamebluedragon196]

Flawlessly genuine storytelling skill in this film

[@DannyBedo]

Yes you can tattoo yourself with pen ink. It’s how most prison tattoos are done, thus the reason they turn weird green color after a long time

[@charlize1253]

When I was 8, I accidentally stabbed myself in the thigh with a pencil tip. The mark is still there 25 years later, an accidental tattoo made of pencil graphite.

[@TheWoodstone]

My grandpa was a coalminer and he always took care that he doesn't hurt his skin while underground. The coal dust could get in the wound and leave a permanent tattoo.

[@BarryHart-xo1oy]

Good to know.

[@DannyBedo]

@@charlize1253 I had the same thing happen to the inside of my knee because I forgot I set a sharpened pencil on the floor and tried to scoot over. 3 years later a Dr. asked if I had a mole 😂

[@DannyBedo]

@@TheWoodstone was his son a professional male model who famously couldn’t turn left? (Sorry I couldn’t help the Zoolander reference)

[@zmarko]

"How can I heal if I can't...feel...time?" Is one of my favorite movie quotes ever. It's so tragic.

[@felixfungle-bung4688]

Jonathan Nolan actually wrote the short story "Memento Mori" that led to the screenplay. Jonathan wrote The Prestige. The brothers brainstormed the movie Intersteller while on a road trip in America.

[@aeneasfate]

I have the Limited Edition DVD set, it's packaged like a file folder, full of 'hand-written' notes, document sheets, sticky-notes, paperclip, etc. Even the discs are printed to blend into the background of documents. One of the hidden puzzles leads to the full short story text by his brother.

[@NeilIvory]

@@aeneasfate same! I don't even have a DVD player anymore, but I've still kept the limited edition memento because it was one of the coolest things I'd seen

[@dnllrnt]

Isn't there an option to play the movie in order via the special features?

[@jhornacek]

@@dnllrnt Yes, George discusses how to do this in the trivia section.

[@Evil_Peter]

I have it too. Definitely one of the DVD's worth keeping even after one has transitioned to either BD or gone digital.

[@jaapsch2]

@@dnllrnt Yes. I noticed that the second disc had suspiciously little content, so I suspected there was some Easter egg on there. I found online the method to unlock the hidden feature which turned out to be the chronologically edited version of the film.

[@stevenhenry9605]

I was in a bad car crash in 2008, and had Lenny's condition for about 4 hours. I was extremely fortunate, and it was only temporary for me. This movie hits very differently now.

[@todd8398]

George: "Is this gonna be a weird 'Time' thing again because it's Nolan?" Me: _[waits for George to see the opening scene...]_

[@jedlogan392]

This was one freaky ass movie, but it was done so well and so engaging that I couldn’t stop watching it the first time. Thank you, Simone and George for a great re-watching and reminding me why I loved this movie the first time I saw it.

[@HumbertTheHorse]

For me, his best film.

[@TheMisterHache]

It is

[@cfbg]

By far imo.

[@januzi2]

The scene with Trinity sitting in the car and waiting for the reset was so evil.

[@DW-lx9wt]

It's such an odd movie. I don't mean that from a movie perspective. Like, some of the line delivery is so poor, flat and emotionless but works because they're meant to be. Watch any of these people in other films and it's almost the same. It's a stunning film from that standpoint with almost the best casting ever. The story carries them all 😅 such a good film.

[@johnplaysgames3120]

It does have that feel. But to be fair to Natalie, think of the story from her perspective: She's not at all a part of Leonard's story and doesn't even know he exists. She's got a boyfriend whom she loves and seems happy with. One day, her boyfriend - a drug dealer - drives off to meet with a guy named "Teddy." Later, she sees her boyfriend pull up in his car (or so she thinks). She goes out to meet him and finds a strange man driving her bf's car, wearing her bf's clothes (with the coaster/note she gave her bf in his pocket) and knows that this man killed him. She can assume the strange man (and/or "Teddy") who killed her bf also likely took the money that Jimmy owed to Dodd, her bf's boss. Dodd is threatening to kill her if she doesn't give the money back. Unfortunately, she can't get the money back to pay Dodd because the guy who killed her bf and took the money can't remember anything and doesn't even have any idea that he took the money or where it might be. She knows that Dodd is going to kill her over this, so the only thing she can do to save herself is take advantage of the amnesia guy and point him at Dodd so that he kills Dodd before he kills her. She might be a bad person, but she's not evil; just in extreme danger and desperate. And, really, how much sympathy would you feel toward the person who just killed your SO (and put you in danger of getting killed)? From her perspective (at first anyway), Leonard is the bad guy and she used his condition to help herself out of the mess he put her in. And, of course, she points Leonard at "Teddy" because, as far as she knows, the meeting with "Teddy" was a set-up and that's what got her bf killed. She sees (or suspects) that Teddy is using Leonard and his condition and flips it on him to get revenge for her bf. If the movie focused on her instead of Leonard, she'd be the plucky hero who flips the bad guys' methods back on them to win, not the evil B sitting in the car, waiting to use a damaged man's medical condition against him for her own gain. It's all perspective. As someone else pointed out, if you watch the movie in chronological order, you can see that, after Leonard takes care of Dodd, she softens up toward him. She feels bad for using him (or at least feels sorry for him) and is relatively nicer to him after she's out of danger. Also, at the end of the movie, Leonard actually turns out to be more manipulative than she was. He fakes his notes in order to allow himself to avoid the truth of who he is, his role in what happened to his wife, and keep chasing a killer that doesn't exist (presumably killing more people along the way).

[@noodle_fc]

@@johnplaysgames3120 You're right about everything except that Natalie doesn't point Leonard towards Teddy. She has a friend run the plate number that Leonard gave her, which she did out of sympathy and/or guilt. HE pointed himself at Teddy when he made Teddy's license plate one of his "Facts."

[@StudioMod]

This movie was big back in the day, but I feel like it's criminally underappreciated in modern times. It's much more sophisticated and well-written compared to modern psychological thrillers. It's also brimming with style and this sorta post-noir narrative. Fantastic movie.

[@mrtveye6682]

There have been a lot of great smaller, creative (from a way of story-telling as well as stylistic) movies around that time of the late 90s/early 2000. Memento was such a brain-f**k when it came out. There was also David Lynch with Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, than there was Donnie Darko, The Virgin Suicides, Requiem for a Dream...

[@jimhowe2624]

Thank you for not saying its "underrated". I fucking hate that new fad that people say when their favourite reactor hasn't watched a popular film.

[@TheDaringPastry1313]

There is someone that is alive today that has a short-term memory way worse than Leonard Shelby. His name is Clive Wearing and he is from the UK. He has a memory that resets every 15-30 seconds after he got a herpes simplex virus that attacked his central nervous system. He was 47 when it started and he is now 86. His wife takes care of him now and you can find a documentary on him if you look his name up on here. In an interview, someone asked what does it feel like to have his condition. He basically said it feels like nothing, it feels like I am dead. Wait, did y'all both not notice at 27:50, someone walks by and Sammy turns into Leonard for a brief second way before the reveal at 31:29.

[@LazerDude]

You know maybe stuff like KZbin shorts and tick toc aren't that bad when you got people like that who can actually enjoy short content

[@ihatethisuser1]

​@@LazerDude yeah but imagine watching the same short 10 times and not even knowing it.

[@TheDaringPastry1313]

​@@LazerDude It's bad, go look at the documentary on Wearing. He has a notebook where he marks the time like every 5-10 mins and writes out something like It's (current time) and this is the most aware I have ever been or something. Then he marks that out and repeats it all day long.

[@johnplaysgames3120]

I remember seeing the flash of Leonard as Sammy when I saw this movie back in the day, but the visual language of movies leaves a lot of wiggle-room for that to mean something else (Leonard is now identifying with Sammy's situation because they both have the same condition, e.g.). So, for me, even when I see hints like that in a movie, there's still a part of my brain that goes, "Well, that could mean a few different things" and I just let it lie, trusting the filmmaker to reveal the real meaning when it's relevant. It helps that, as a teen, I decided that I preferred just going on the ride of a movie and not trying to guess "the twist" or what might happen. I like to live in the present moment of a movie and let the filmmaker steer the story at their own pace. In a good movie, you know stuff when you're meant to know it. This is also why I'm glad George chose to keep his theory to himself partway through the movie (rather than potentially spoil it for Simone, if he was correct). There's nothing worse than watching a movie with someone who calls out the big reveal long before it happens and then you spend the rest of the movie looking for it instead of just taking the story as it comes. There are a few reactors whose channels I've actually unsubscribed to because they continually throw out guesses about EVERYTHING (what's going to happen, who's going to die, who's going to get romantic, what the person is about to say, etc) instead of just watching the movie and experiencing it as intended. And that's especially frustrating when they end up missing the big bits of information (or the best lines of dialogue) because they were talking over it with a series of wrong guesses and then spend the rest of the movie confused about what's going on because they missed key info There's a HUGE difference between reacting to a movie and talking over it the entire time with guesses trying to demonstrate how clever you are about movies. It's like, "Bruh, nobody cares. This is a movie REACTION channel, not a movie detective channel." You can react without obsessively trying to predict.

[@noodle_fc]

@@johnplaysgames3120 In my opinion, the flash of Leonard in Sammy's place represents Leonard's fear of becoming like Sammy. He has habit, routine, and most importantly purpose. That flash comes while he's telling Teddy on the phone about Sammy killing his wife, and how he doesn't even remember doing it. Leonard is agitated by the polaroid of himself, happily pointing to the spot that means he's done it, which of course he can't remember. If the revenge is complete, there is no more point to his habit and routine, He will be like Sammy. Later he will learn the full significance of the photo. He decides to burn it and set himself on the path to killing the person who took it. He lies to himself to avoid becoming Sammy.

[@TCrimson05t]

So this film was the first Christopher Nolan film I ever saw. I was a junior in summer school in our English teacher showed it to us. And by the end of it every single one of us was completely confused. I remember immediately leaving summer school and going to a blockbuster and renting the movie. It was probably the first time a film had been presented like a puzzle which kind of scratched the gamer in me. Because all video games are puzzles. I've been kind of on the Christopher Nolan bandwagon ever since. Also I own the limited edition of the DVD it is wild. It is so good. It comes in a case shaped like a file.

[@Little1Cave]

It’s why I love mystery stories. They are puzzles in narrative form. ❤

[@BrandonBlume]

If you rewatch the movie you'll notice that in the coloured memories (btw, that's a very interesting term to use given how the plot develops which I'm just realizing now) Teddy every now and then tries to disassociate himself with his car and keeps trying to swap with Lenny. He keeps trying to get the Jag because he knows the money is in the trunk the whole time. But possibly because Lenny wrote down his license plate number.

[@Pengi_SMILES]

As much as I like Nolans later films this one and Insomnia (a remake of a Norwegian film - with fantastic performances by Al Pacino and Robin Williams) are probably still my favourites. Instantly signposted himself as a brilliant new director.

[@Jeff_Lichtman]

When Memento first came out, I told a friend I had seen it. She asked, "Did it have a happy beginning?

[@flippert0]

Nolan's first feature movie (apart from the micro-budgeted 'Following' and some shorts) is a also his second best after 'The Prestige', IMHO. We the audience are exactly put into the shoes of the protagonist trying to solve an (unsolvable?) puzzle.

[@Nocturn189]

black and white - from the beginning towards the end color - from the end towards the beginning I love that at the end of the movie both timelines meet each other. One of Nolan's best

[@dangerkeith3000]

One of my favorite films of all time. The theatre was absorbed in it with silence the entire time when I first saw it. Had the buy the VHS at the video store I worked at when it came out.

[@bloodymarvelous4790]

Another awesome directorial debut is Danny Boyle's "Shallow Grave" with Christopher Eccleston and Ewan McGregor.

[@Cedisdead]

"THE GUY FROM THE MATRIX" is like one of the most underrated actors of all time

[@chuckd2435]

"How can i heal if i cant feel time?" - One of the best and most heart breaking lines in movie history.

[@flippert0]

33:31 Simone's 'headache' gesture seems to genuine ! 😂

[@MrAndrewjustdoit]

It’s a unique story about a serial killer

[@riccardobruero]

My dad and his friends tattood themselves with writing ink, when they were 14 years old and starting to work in the coal mines of Sumatra (Sawahlunto), before World War Two. Memento is an excellent film!

[@positivelynegative9149]

29:28 Simone's face. 🤣 Her brain was fried.

[@todd8398]

Essentially the B&W sequences are the earliest chronologically and moving to the point where Leonard meets Jimmy. The color sequences are moving backward from the chonological end of the story, backward until the same point. The forward B&W sections and the backward color sections converge at the end of the movie.

[@Quixotic1018]

Random fact: the street he's driving down at 9:50 is the same street (opposite direction) Marty McFly is on in the beginning of back to the future when he hitches a ride behind that jeep

[@stephenochosiete9869]

I appreciate how Nolan uses the same actors in his movies. Almost like a multiverse.

[@patrickdepew4976]

I still have the limited edition DVD even though I also upgraded the movie to 4K. I won't get rid of it ever just because of the chronological cut. I was able to access it, but I've only ever watched it once. It does hold up, although it obviously limits the impact of the "twist" in the theatrical cut.

[@davidd.3555]

He blocked out his bad memories, like him killing his wife. He ended in the mental hospital, it’s shown when a nurse walks by “Sammy” & he conjured the Sammy Jenkins story. Lenny is the ACTUAL villain in the movie. Along with Natalie & Teddy to a degree as well.

[@Bunke09]

The DVD comes in a case that looks like a medical file. You open it at the bottum flipped up and the disk is in the top while the middle flap reads as the PSYCHIATRIC REPORT of SHELBY_LEONARD It's very cool. THe DVD of Me, Myself, and Irene has something simular where if you leave it sitting in the main menu long enough, the DVD freaks out and switches it's whole layout and theme to an agry version with Red instead of blue menus and hardcore music instead of chill while showing previews of different scenes in the film from the normal menu.

[@darkglass1]

50 First Dates also features a character with this condition.

[@johncampbell756]

Shaking Polaroids is supposed to blur them slightly. There was a special edition DVD that had, as a special feature, the movie in chronological order.

[@toddfuresz462]

The genius of Nolan and the screenplay is the way it is shot (in backwards order) you the viewer have the same issue as Guy Pearce and you are unsure what is going on and confused. Just fantastic filmmaking. A real experience and so glad u 2 watched it and loved it.

[@TheDancerMacabre]

Theres a frame with Leonard and the "I Did It" tattoo'd over his heart. But we never see it in the present. Meaning he got it done, but then had it removed so he can keep looking.

[@s0rd3z]

Commenting before watching. I predict they are going to LOVE this movie. Especially George.

[@Serai3]

This is such a brilliant movie. The constant push-and-pull between the backward-facing color scenes and the forward-facing black-and-white scenes has the eventual effect of putting you in Leonard's mindset. It becomes very difficult to keep track of what's going on, and know who is telling the truth and who is lying. It's probably the best lesson on the power of editing that I've ever seen. Oddly enough, when you watch it in chronological order, it's not nearly as interesting; it's a fairly typical _film noir_ with the unusual twist of anterior-grade memory loss thrown in. (I rented the special edition years ago.) One of my favorites because I just love movies that mess with your head, movies where the viewer _must_ pay attention in order not to get lost. :)

[@inlpwetrust]

Memento wasn't shown in my country (Taiwan) theatrically, but had a DVD release - with ONLY the chronological cut. Apparently the distributor thought the true version was too confusing. This obviously caused a huge backlash, as a lot of people got duped into watching the movie the way it wasn't intended and had the experience ruined (including me.) To this day the "Memento DVD" is still being joked about among Taiwanese movie fans.

[@mercurymachines4311]

I've had the DVD since it was released and watched it in chronological order a few times. Memento is one of his very best.

[@cyruswhitley7840]

Guy Pearce is a very underrated actor. He is excellent in everything he does. There is a movie called Rules of Engagement he is in with Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson that I think you both would really enjoy.

[@duckprints7]

This is at the top of my all time favorites list, I really love it. ❤

[@fiskpinnen]

Would be perfect for you to merge the two categories of Loss of Memory with Adam Sandler movies by watching 50 First Dates :)

[@avengemybreath3084]

And romcom / enemies to lovers

[@David-cg1lh]

I don't usually get a chance to comment this because memento reactions I search for are usually a few months old but has anyone ever noted that in each scene with his wife he's slightly dickish too her. Not in a big way but he remembers being dismisive of reading the same book twice and rewrites his memory of injecting her to pinching her unnecaserily. I wonder if his guilt has infected his memories of them together.

[@AmateurSurgeonThe3rd]

It's amazing how much you worked out on a first watch

[@michaelkreitzer1369]

The wild thing is that the story would be, in a way, even harder to follow if shown in the correct order. You'd have to keep track of what he's forgotten. When told in reverse, you are always in the state he is in not knowing what's happened and relying on his notes.

[@prestonpastor9503]

I do have the DVD and solved but its been forever. The black and white scenes move forward and the coor scenes go backward until they meet and the black and white turns to color when shaking the polaroid after killing Jimmy. Such a great film.

[@stephenochosiete9869]

I remember so many DVD’s with hidden features, menus, and scenes that were so fun to find. Bedazzled is a good one.

[@standoughope]

As a former blackout drunk, this film felt way too real. I used to drink vodka from sunup to sundown every day for years. I would write notes and tape them to my bedroom door because otherwise I had no idea how the day before went post 5 pm.

[@snowfort77]

OG prison tats were done with ink made from cigarette ash. My first tattoo was a poker with India ink but i knew people who gave themselves tattoos with pen ink in high school, during class, while on acid.

[@Wolf-ln1ml]

I love the XKCD strip on this... Merlin watches it and says at the end, "Well, that was straightforward" 🤣

[@carlesmacuaid]

The special edition DVD of this was great. It had a hidden version of the movie that was in chronological order that could only be accessed by answering questions in a specific sequence.

[@lmcgregoruk]

At 27:59 of this video, You see someone walk past Sammy Jankis, and when he's passed him, it's Leonard Shelby sitting in the chair.

[@gillesibub]

The chronological cut (and the manner in which it's reached) was a brilliant feature. Having seen the film several times already, and having literally just treated my younger brother to his first viewing of the release version, I mentioned I'd heard about the hidden cut, and knew how to get it. He was immediately amped and we had to give it a watch. To navigate there, you had to select a specific item from a grid of images (the clock, I think?) and then complete a clever little test which mirrors themes in the movie, in that you're instructed to arrange a little strip of 4 images which all show one task, to tell the order of events start to finish. EXCEPT, to access the hidden cut, you reverse the order of the pictured steps. It then plays the end credits backwards, and starts with all the black & white scenes (which were edited in the original cut to run chronologically anyway, but intersected) leading to the colour scenes (now reshuffled to work chronologically as well). With the added bonus of having the story so fresh in our minds, to then see the story retold was, honestly, almost as mind-blowing, and made for an experience that really felt almost like a complementary support to the cinematic release. Have you considered watching another early Nolan film (the one that immediately followed Memento, in fact), Insomnia?

[@Soulbreeze]

I still have the DVD for this and there's a section to click on that plays all the memories in chronologically correct order. It's wild.

[@todd8398]

I had the Limited Ed DVD at one time. It has a pale blue cover and is designed to look like a clinical psychiatric file. The LE DVD has a menu option with series of multiple choice questions that you "answer" with the DVD remote. Once you complete it the movie plays in Chrono order (which is really "the movie plays the chapters in a specific sequence"). IIRC they shuffle around the questions, but there is a proper sequence to answering the questions, and there is a diagram/pattern on the inside DVD cover that's actually a hint to the proper sequence.

[@Skullspliter]

When I gave away nearly all my DVDs (300+), I only kept a small handful. The Memento Limited Edition was 1 that I kept. It will always have a place in my top 10.

[@normaleehi]

Nolan's first film, Following, a student film, is fantastic. still my favorite of his. truly diabolical👙

[@racquetman75]

I used to have the special edition DVD. I remember trying to solve the puzzles … don’t recall if I ever did or if I just found the answers on the internet. I don’t think I ever bothered watching the movie in chronological order, either. I had a massive DVD collection back then and was always buying new ones to watch instead of rewatching things I already owned. That DVD was definitely one of the coolest I ever owned. They put a ton of effort into making it special. Streaming has killed all the cool things they used to do with physical media back in the good ol’ days.

[@jsharp3165]

I love that Sammy and his wife - a tragic couple - are played by two famously comedic actors. Stephen Tobolowsky and Harriet Sansom Harris. Both are brilliant theater performers with great dramatic range. But he is best known as Ned Ryerson from 'Groundhog Day' and she will always be Bebe Glazer on 'Frasier'.

[@TheBlott2319]

Weirdly the thing that has always bothered me most about this film is thinking about what happens next. Without Teddy to aim him, and with that weirdly specific license plate tattoo, I just dont see where he goes next.

[@spectralsymphony]

The big clue that revealed the one major twist for me (no spoilers here, although I think the comments further down already tell) ..was at 27:52 (cut from this video here) a 'blink it and miss it' couple of frames/reveal - where we find out the real Sammy Jenkis story, and how memories can be unreliable. When I watched it the first time, a cold wash went right over me. And at 32:33 he finally manages to break the cycle with Teddy by writing on that last polaroid. Fantastic movie

[@ZachLorton]

My reaction at the end of the movie, the first time I saw it, was BOTH George's and Simone's. This movie rocked me when I first saw it.

[@HarrIock]

Memenot and Fight Club were the best movies to watch back to back in the 2000s

[@lordhoot1]

I just noticed the early shot of Leonard walking from his room to the motel reception. The barrier obscuring his legs is made of translucent glass, so he looks like a man who's only half there.

[@israelmunoz9536]

About getting a tattoo with pen ink, a friend in middle school pierced another one with a Chinese inked needle in his wrist, and left a small black dot in it. By the end of middle school he still had it, and most probably he still does, more than twenty years later. So yeah, I guess it is possible 😆

[@DarthCrimsonDeath]

Can't ever decide if Memento or The Prestige is Nolan's best, and after watching Oppenheimer in IMAX rekindling my love of movies that one is also the top contender. After each watch of each Nolan movie, that one becomes my favorite again. But damn, this one is crisp and lean and tight, the structure is genius and flawless. What an impressive run of films Nolan and his team have, I truly love ALL his films.

[@Cory_Springer]

this is one of my favorite movies to rewatch on a nearly annual basis.

[@fiorinifury]

One of the greatest movies ever made.

[@lomaw]

This is probably my favourite film of all time. So happy to see you guys enjoy it :)

[@jfrancism-lr9kc]

shot out to Guy Pierce and his performance. he's so good that people never question it. his accent is pure australian, great job nailing an american one and doing fantastic work on the voice overs. the guy (no pun intended) (okay, pun intended) has great range, solidified by his work in this film and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

[@gluuuuue]

Nolan or his brother (also Nolan, whose involvement was in the concept, iirc) explained all human memory fundamentally has the same deficiency Lenny's memories do, in terms of its susceptibility to manipulation, both by others but most especially by ourselves. The ending makes the viewer realize that while Lenny's condition is just a really extreme form of it, we're all capable tricking our *own* memories-selective memory, selective forgetfulness, wholesale invention-in order to give ourselves what we want. (I've heard from those who've watched the movie chapters in chronological order, the narrative just became an uncomfortable story about a buncha people taking advantage of a mentally disabled man. 😅)

[@dubbleplusgood]

The real question now is was this really their first time watch orr did they forget they watched before?

[@russellhutchison7811]

For me, Guy Pearce is right up there with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth as far as actors. This movie is why.

[@MrGpschmidt]

More twists than a barrel of pretzels - Nolan's finest hour IMO - Pearce's too - fave scene is the foot chase "I'm chasing this guy..." The fact they have Stephen Tobolowsky from GROUNDHOG DAY echoes that film too :D Then again he may be in THE MATRIX since Joe & Carrie are here as well :D

[@standoughope]

This is one of those films that stays with you for a while.

[@Insaneian]

I don't just have the DVD of Memento, I'm the guy who first found the chronological version of the film on the disc and submitted it to DVD Easter Egg sites back in the day! 😅 (many DVDs would have hidden features or elements on them -- Easter eggs -- and there uses to be websites on what discs had them and how to find them. I made sure that when I submitted the one for this one, I included my screen name, Insane Ian, so if any other sites picked up on it, that would get carried over too!)

[@mirkoyossen31]

George: "Damn he's in good shape" Simone: "Yup"

[@StarkRG]

At 27:59, if you watch the unblurred image, Sammy Jankis is replaced by Leonard for a few frames after an orderly passes in front of the camera

[@dragonshane]

I worked at a theater when this was released, and I watched it 3 times while it was there for 6 months. I had never seen another movie stay in theaters that long(post 2000). I was recommending it to anyone that didn't know what to watch.

[@chrisschuenke8316]

"is it gonna be a weird time thing?" Understatement of the 21st century.