Summary

• Memento's unique narrative structure immerses viewers in the protagonist's perspective, enhancing the noir atmosphere.
• The film's contrasting color sequences highlight the past and present events, adding depth and complexity to the story.
• Memento explores the power of trauma and self-deceit, challenging viewers to question their own identities and actions.

Christopher Nolan explores the nature of memory with his twisting and turning Memento timeline. As a director, Nolan has prioritized originality and examines themes that fascinate him as a storyteller. Nolan's interest in time and memory, and how these factors color the perception of the world and everyone in it, can be traced back to his breakout hit Memento. His second feature film after the crime-thriller Following, 2000's Memento stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man with anterograde amnesia (the inability to retain memories of recent events) ever since two men attacked him and murdered his wife.

Leonard collects evidence utilizing a system using Polaroid photographs, handwritten notes, and details tattooed onto his body. To give audiences an idea of what the world is like from Leonard's perspective, Memento plays out in two different series of events: one presented in black and white, unfolding chronologically, and one in color, playing in reverse order. These story threads converge toward the movie's ending, revealing the truth about what Leonard has become, and the way people manipulate him. Understanding the Memento timeline is complex, but also exposes the deeper meaning behind the movie.

Memento Timeline Explained

The Meaning Behind The Color And Monochrome Sequences Is Crucial

The way Memento timeline is constructed, the first black and white scene is the earliest event in the narrative (not including the flashbacks to Leonard's past before his brain injury and the immediate aftermath). The first color scene in Memento is the last event in the plot. Thanks to the film's unconventional structure, the point where the two intersect is the middle of the narrative chronologically, despite being shown in the movie's final scenes. It might seem like a gimmicky way of telling this story on the surface, but it is an effective approach to putting viewers in Leonard's shoes.

Memento's contrasting colors are equally important and distinguish the scenes set in the movie's past from those in the present.

In the black-and-white Memento scenes, Leonard talks to someone on the motel room phone. The audience isn't told where he is or who he's talking to because Leonard imself doesn't remember those things. Similarly, because the color scenes take place in reverse order, viewers never have the complete context for what's happening at any given moment, just like the film's protagonist. Memento's contrasting colors are equally important and distinguish the scenes set in the movie's past from those in the present.

While Memento isn't the first movie to tell a story in reverse, these scenes enhance its noir atmosphere and tropes (like Leonard's internal monologue), particularly during the black-and-white sequences. Even when the answers arrive, it takes a little detective work to put all the pieces together, much like Leonard has to do to fully understand what's become of him, and the role he played in causing his fate.

Who Really Killed Leonard’s Wife

Catherine's Death Didn't Occur During The Home Invasion

Due to his condition, the last thing Leonard remembers is the sight of his wife, Catherine (Jorja Fox), lying on the floor next to him, seemingly dying after being sexually assaulted and strangled by their attackers. Before that, he kills one of the men who invaded their home, only for the second one to club him in the head (which results in him developing anterograde amnesia) and escape.

Leonardo believes the police didn't think there was a second attacker, leaving it to him to find the man. All Leonard knows is the man's name is a variation of John or James and his last name starts with G. The twist comes at the movie's end when Memento reveals Catherine survived the initial attack.

Not believing Leonard's condition is real, Catherine (who is diabetic) attempts to call his bluff by having him assist her with her insulin shot one day. She waits long enough for him to forget he gave her a shot that day and asks him to do it again, believing he would admit the truth before accidentally killing her by giving her an insulin overdose. However, Leonard's condition isn't faked, and he tragically gives her a second insulin shot, killing her.

Why Leonard Frames Teddy

Teddy Has Been Using Leonard To Do His Dirty Work

Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) reveals everything to Leonard at the end of Memento (where the black and white and color scenes meet up). In reality, Teddy is the cop investigating Catherine's case and, feeling sorry for what happened to the couple, chooses to help Leonard track down the mysterious John/Jimmy G, hoping to fix his memory. The two find and kill the second attacker, even commemorating the event by taking a pair of photographs afterward (which Leonard still has). It didn't work, though, and Leonard remains obsessed with finding his wife's attacker, not remembering he already had.

When Teddy tells Leonard the truth, he admits he's been using Leonard to kill various men "named John/Jimmy G" to serve his ends and give Leonard a purpose for living. Infuriated and not wanting to remember the truth about how Catherine died and the terrible things he's done since then, Leonard burns the photos of the real second attacker's dead body. He frames Teddy for the crime, leaving himself a note not to trust the latter and writing down Teddy's car's license plate number as that of the real John/Jimmy G.

There's no way for Leonard to know the truth later. Teddy admits to Leonard that John/Jimmy G is such a common name that it's even his own name (John Edward Gammell). When Leonard later kills Teddy (as shown in the movie's opening scene), he believes he has avenged his wife for real.

Leonard’s Wife & Sammy Jankis Explained

Guilt Made Leonard Interpret His Own Story As Sammy's

Memento leaves some room to doubt whether Leonard will stop after killing Teddy, suggesting he remembers more than he realizes. During the black and white scenes, Leonard recounts the story of Sammy Jankis (Stephen Tobolowsky), a man with anterograde amnesia whom Leonard learned about before his accident when he was an insurance agent. As Leonard tells it, it was Sammy's wife (Harriet Sansom Harris) who was diabetic and refused to believe his condition was real, leading her to test him by having him give her insulin shots the way Catherine did to Leonard.

Leonard has repressed and distorted the truth out of guilt.

As Teddy later confirms during his confession, the real Sammy Jankis was an unmarried fraud (as Leonard proved after investigating him) and his story is truly Leonard's personal story. Leonard has repressed and distorted the truth out of guilt.

What Memento Really Means

Memento Is About The Power Of Trauma

As challenging as Leonard's condition makes his life, Memento suggests he's not different from anybody else when his memory informs his sense of identity. During the film, Teddy argues that everybody lies to themselves as Leonard does. Memento subscribes to the idea that trauma and grief can shape people's understanding of who they are. Rather than making peace with the past and moving forward, many resort to self-deceit instead and soon find themselves trapped within a cycle of destructive behavior caused by their actions.

Memento ends with Leonard arguing his actions still have consequences even if he can't remember them, and the film doesn't necessarily disagree with him.

It can be difficult to break out of those cycles; even reminders of the people and events that brought them to where they are can warp the truth and keep the cycle going (like so many of the mementos Leonard creates for himself). Unable to learn from his mistakes, yet still able to lie to himself about who he is and what he's done, Leonard potentially finds a way out of his destructive cycle by framing Teddy and making up his truth. It's a fittingly dark conclusion to Nolan's neo-noir tale, but one getting at a deeper notion.

Sometimes the actual truth isn't good enough and people need something better — he would go on to explore it in greater depth in The Dark Knight (before, as some have argued, contradicting that film's conclusion in The Dark Knight Rises). Memento ends with Leonard arguing his actions still have consequences even if he can't remember them, and the film doesn't necessarily disagree with him. It does, however, suggest the truth about what those consequences are (and even what led to them) lies very much in the eye of the beholder.