Screenplay by Christopher Nolan, based on a short story by Jonathan Nolan. Directed by Christopher Nolan.
LOGLINE
A man suffering from a condition that stops him from making new memories investigates his wife's murder.
A note about sequencing in this film:
This film progresses intercutting back and forth between two storylines. After a few minutes, the viewer realises that one storyline progresses normally (viewed in black and white, noted with a '>' symbol in the analysis that follows), but it intercuts with a story in colour, which progresses in reverse (written in yellow letters, in the analysis, and noted with a '<' symbol).
In most films, a sequence works both as a dramatic unit and as a unit of viewing experience. This, however, is not the case. It is very probable that the screenwriter, in order to structure the story, has sequenced it in a straight form. The viewer, though, experiences the story in a warped form. In order to distinguish the sequences in Memento, we have to acknowledge the difference and make a choice:
Being in reverse, each sequence begins with its resolution: a goal is achieved. It ends with its inciting incident: the birth of the desire or need to achieve the previously mentioned goal.
But, enough with theory. Enjoy!
SYNOPSIS
A. KILLING HIM: Using a licence plate as a lead, Leonard kills John G., the man who has raped and murdered his wife.
B. FINDING HIS LICENCE PLATE: To repay Leonard for helping her, Natalie traces John G.'s licence plate.
C. GETTING RID OF DODD: Following Natalie's notes, Leonard drives a criminal named Dodd out of town. Moved by his help and his loss, Natalie promises to help Leonard with his quest.
D. MEETING DODD: Leonard confronts Dodd and manages to capture him.
(A part of me thinks that I should merge C and D into one sequence only. Maybe, in another analysis, some other time. I am leaving it as it is for the moment.)
E. REMEMBERING TO FORGET: Leonard makes an escort girl use some mementos of his wife to help him re-enact the last moments before her death. Realising that this doesn't help him, he burns the mementos.
F. NATALIE'S PLOT: Natalie tricks Leonard into helping her get rid of Dodd.
G. MEETING NATALIE: Recognising his Jaguar, Natalie meets Leonard and invites him over to her place, to check him out.
H. KILLING THE WRONG GUY: (The only sequence played out in a straight timeline.) Following Teddy's instructions, Leonard kills Natalie's boyfriend, a drug dealer. Teddy admits having taken advantage of Leonard's handicap for his own profit. Since he can't punish Teddy in cold blood, Leonard decides to trick himself into believing that Teddy is John G., starting the investigation that leads to Teddy's death, at the beginning of the film.
STEP OUTLINE
A. KILLING HIM
0 < LEONARD shoots TEDDY dead and takes a Polaroid photo of the body.
This is the only scene that plays in reverse motion, giving us a wink about the messed up timeline that will follow.
1 > Leonard wakes up in a motel room. He tries to figure out whose room it is, admitting he can't tell how long he has been there.
1 < Teddy picks up Leonard from his hotel, the Discount Inn. Teddy shows his own car, suggesting that it is Leonard's, but Leonard doesn't buy it. He flashes a Polaroid of the Jaguar that sits in front of them, showing Teddy that he knows his own car. They get in the Jaguar and drive off.
Several references create the mystery around Leonard's story. Leonard has what he calls "his condition" and "his handicap," which he doesn't explain, yet. We know, though, that Polaroids play an important assisting role in this condition. Other elements that excite our curiosity are the broken Jaguar window as well as the pickup truck they see in the next scene.
They drive to an abandoned industrial building. When Teddy asks him why they are going there, Leonard says he doesn't know.
Outside the building, they see a pickup truck. Leonard opens the door and sees some bullets sitting on the truck's seat. Teddy tries to get him to lose interest in the whole setting, but Leonard steps into the building alone.
In the building, Leonard takes Teddy's Polaroid out of this pocket, flips it over, and reads: "DON'T BELIEVE HIS LIES. HE IS THE ONE. KILL HIM." Realising that he has found the man he has been looking for, Leonard knocks Teddy down and shoots him, despite Teddy's plea to listen to him and check the basement to find out "what Leonard has become."
Teddy tries to pull the same trick that he has used in scene 22 > (see near the end of the film): he attempts to tell Leonard "what he has become." We don't know what that is, yet. Leonard is ambivalent for a moment, but then, based perhaps on the note "DON'T BELIEVE HIS LIES," he decides not to listen and shoots Teddy dead.
2 > Leonard gets up and looks around the hotel room. He has a tattoo on his left hand: REMEMBER SAMMY JANKIS. Through voice over (his internal monologue), he explains that Sammy Jankis had the same problem with him. "I have a system," says Leonard. He has a piece of paper stuck on his thigh, that says: "SHAVE."
This whole series of black and white scenes are, actually, extremely boring. A voice over and an endless telephone conversation is all the action we are exposed to. We tolerate them, only thanks to the mystery: we try to suck on every piece of information we are given.
2 < In the motel room, Leonard writes "HE IS THE ONE. KILL HIM" at the back of Teddy's photograph and gets his gun ready. He walks out the room (this is room 304) and heads to the front desk.
BERT, the receptionist, lets Leonard explain about his condition before he reveals that he has already heard it all before. Leonard has had an injury, which prohibits him from making new memories. He pays Bert the bill for his room.
This is a nice example of "exposition as ammunition." That is, information used as an argument in a scene. Leonard explains his problem to Bert (and to the audience), but he does so with a dramatic purpose: to convince Bert about his problematic memory.
This scene also introduces an element that will be developed later: Leonard often pretends that he remembers. He pretends remembering having told Bert "I like looking at people in the eye when I speak to them."
Teddy comes and picks up Leonard. GO TO: 1 <
3 > Leonard, following notes that he has left around the room, shaves his thigh.
His voice-over goes on explaining (exposition, but not as ammunition) how his system works: he makes notes, tattooing them on himself.
The phone rings and Leonard picks it up.
3 < Leonard walks out of the bathroom of a restaurant. A waiter calls after him, bringing him some stuff that he has forgotten on his table: an envelope and his 304 room key. Leonard asks the waiter how to get to Discount Inn and jots down the directions.
Back at the Inn, Leonard opens the envelope, which reads: "From Natalie." Inside, he finds a photocopy of John Gammell's driver licence. Gammell is the man introduced as Teddy. Leonard calls Gammell's number and Teddy picks it up, telling Leonard to wait for him.
Teddy finds out that Leonard has somehow discovered his real name.
Comparing the photocopied licence with a tattoo on his (freshly shaven) thigh, he confirms that it is the man he has been looking for. He writes "HE IS THE ONE," on the flip side of Teddy's Polaroid. Then, looking at the rest of his tattoos, he sees "John G. raped and murdered my wife." He adds: "KILL HIM," to the note on the Polaroid. GO TO: 2 <
B. FINDING HIS LICENCE PLATE
4 > Leonard speaks on the phone with someone who claims they have spoken before. Leonard starts telling him about Sammy.
4 < Leonard enters a restaurant and NATALIE calls him over to her table. She gives him information about a licence plate that Leonard has asked her to trace: John Gammell's. She suggests that Leonard gets rid of John G. in a specific abandoned building. She also gives Leonard his 304 room key, which he has forgotten at her place.
(This pays off Leonard's statement, in 1 <, that he doesn't know why he drives to the specific building with Teddy.)
Leonard's dialogue with Natalie exposes the film's main theme: When Natalie says, "even if you take revenge, you won't remember it," Leonard answers: "My actions still have meaning, even if I don't remember them." Leonard will go through a journey (or has gone already?!?) that will make him discover whether this statement is true.
5 > On phone, Leonard goes on about Sammy and his own past. Leonard used to be an insurance investigator, assigned to Sammy's case.
5 < Teddy spots Leonard and invites him to lunch. "Somebody tries to set you up, to make you kill the wrong guy," Teddy says. Leonard insists that his investigation is based on facts, not memories, so he will soon find the man he is after. Teddy encourages him: "We'll find the guy."
Leonard goes back to the Discount Inn's front desk. Instead of taking him to room 304, Bert gets confused and takes him to room 21, which has remains of Leonard's shaving. Cornered, Bert reveals that he has double-checked Leonard, taking advantage of his condition.
Bert is the first character we see taking advantage of Leonard's handicap for profit. This is, actually, the second time we see Bert playing with Leonard. The first time is in scene 2 <, when he pretends that he hears about Leonard's condition for the first time.
Soon, we will see that all everyone does is take advantage of Leonard's handicap.
In his pocket, Leonard finds a note about an appointment with Natalie. He walks off.
6 > On the phone, Leonard goes on about Sammy's case. Sammy had only a few-minute memory, but could operate the insulin shot to his diabetic wife.
6 < Morning. Leonard wakes up in Natalie's room. She tells him that she will look into finding about the licence plate that he is after. She kisses Leonard, but he tells her that he won't remember her the next time he sees her.
"I will help you, because you helped me," she says, springing a new mystery: what has Leonard done for her? The answer to this question is the backbone of what we could call Memento's Second Act.
C. GETTING RID OF DODD
7 > On the phone, Leonard explains about the tests they ran on Sammy, in order to check his ability to learn through repetition.
7 < Night. Leonard's Jaguar parks outside Natalie's. He knocks the door and, when Natalie opens, Leonard flashes a Polaroid of a guy named Dodd, gagged and beaten up. Leonard demands explanations. Natalie thanks him for helping her on "her problem" and calms him down.
Leonard fears that someone is trying to get him to kill the wrong guy. The "killing the wrong guy" theme reappears to keep itself alive until the end of the film, when it will pay off.
Natalie sees Leonard's tattoos and sympathises with his loss. She shows him a picture of her boyfriend, Jimmy Grant, who went to meet a guy named Teddy and never came back. She offers to help Leonard with his quest.
At night, lying in bed, Leonard reminisces about his wife. He takes Natalie's Polaroid and makes a note: "SHE HAS ALSO LOST SOMEONE, SHE WILL HELP YOU OUT OF PITY." He slips back into bed with her and falls asleep.
8 > Leonard goes on about Sammy: Sammy doesn't respond to the tests and his claim gets turned down, while Leonard takes a promotion.
8 < Leonard wakes up in a hotel room and finds DODD in the closet, tied up and beaten up. Teddy arrives and Leonard lets him in, after consulting his "Teddy" Polaroid picture. Teddy sees Dodd and panics: "Is this John G.?" he asks Leonard. Leonard finds a Polaroid of Dodd, in the present condition, that says: "DODD. GET RID OF HIM. ASK NATALIE." They argue about what to do with him and decide to get rid of him. They walk him out of the hotel and drive him out of town. They return with Teddy's car. Leonard says he will find what that was all about.
His Jaguar parks outside Natalie's and demands explanations. GO TO 7 <
D. MEETING DODD
9 > About Sammy: his wife puts pressure on him, struggling to figure out if he fakes his condition.
9 < Leonard is in a hotel bathroom, holding a whisky bottle, not knowing what he is there for. He takes a shower. Dodd enters and Leonard instinctively attacks him, knocking him out with the whisky bottle. Then, he hides him in the closet and takes a Polaroid of him.
Consulting his notes, he finds one written by Natalie's hand, giving Dodd's description and room address, along with the note: "Put him onto Teddy or just get rid of him for Natalie." He makes a note on Dodd's Polaroid: "DODD. GET RID OF HIM..." He calls Teddy, after consulting his "Teddy" Polaroid and leaves a voice message inviting him over. As he waits, he falls asleep. GO TO 8 <
10 > As Leonard speaks, the other person hangs up. Leonard starts a home-made tattoo, using ink from a ball pen.
10 < Leonard runs, as Dodd gives chase.
A touch of comedy here, as it takes Leonard a moment to realise that it is Dodd chasing him and not the other way around!
He jumps into his Jaguar and drives off. He consults his notes and finds Natalie's "Dodd Description" paper. He drives to Dodd's room to ambush him.
He forces open the wrong door (9 instead of 6). Then, he enters the right room, takes the whiskey bottle as a weapon and waits in the bathroom. And waits. And waits. And forgets what he is waiting for. GO TO 9 <
It is notable that Leonard makes the same choice of weapon twice. He picks the whisky bottle to knock Dodd out, then forgets about why he is holding the bottle. Afterwards, when Dodd comes in, he instinctively knocks him out with the same bottle!
11 > Leonard, about to tattoo on himself: "FACT 5: ACCESS TO DRUGS."
11 < As Leonard returns from an isolated location, Dodd starts giving chase. He shoots the Jaguar driver's window, shattering it. Leonard starts running. GO TO 10 <
E. REMEMBERING TO FORGET
12 > The phone rings, as Leonard is about to start the tattoo.
12 < Night. Leonard goes to an isolated place and burns some of his wife's mementos: a hairbrush, a book, a teddy bear...
During a flashback, Leonard teases his wife about her reading the same book "a thousand times." She says that she enjoys it.
A subtle implication of the "killing the wrong guy" theme: Leonard can kill the wrong guy a thousand times and still enjoy it.
Leonard spends the night there, by the fire. GO TO 11 <
13 > Leonard speaks on the phone. The other person tells something about drugs, making Leonard consult his notes, excited. There are pages missing.
13 < Night. Leonard wakes up from the sound of a slamming door. He sees his wife's mementos scattered around the room. He calls on her, as he opens the bathroom door, only to find a call girl snorting cocaine on the toilet seat. He asks her to leave and takes his wife's stuff away for burning. GO TO 12 <
14 > On phone: Leonard realises that John G. is a drug dealer. He changes the tattoo he is about to do into: "FACT 5: DRUG DEALER."
14 < Leonard arrives at Discount Inn's room 304 for the first time. He calls an escort agency, ordering a girl.
The escort girl arrives. Leonard explains to the girl what he wants her to do: put his wife's mementos around, let him sleep, and close herself into the bathroom, slamming the door.
Later, she does as told. Leonard wakes up from the sound of the slamming door.
F. NATALIE'S PLOT
15 > On phone, Leonard continues Sammy's story: Sammy's wife, after having tried different ways of snapping him out of his act, visits Leonard at his office. She asks Leonard whether he thinks that Sammy can be normal again or not. Leonard sticks to his original conclusion: Sammy should be physically capable of making new memories. Sammy's wife thanks him and leaves.
15 < Leonard finds Teddy waiting for him in the Jaguar. Teddy tells him not to trust Natalie (whose place Leonard has just walked out of) and gives him the address of Discount Inn, so that Leonard moves out of Natalie's place. Leonard decides to follow his advice and to stay at the Discount Inn.
16 > On phone: Leonard justifies his reply to Sammy's wife as he uncovers the bandages of another recent tattoo: "NEVER ANSWER THE PHONE." Cold sweat runs down Leonard's spine, as the other person hangs up again.
16 < Leonard frantically looks for a pen in Natalie's house. Natalie comes in, with a bruised face. She tells him that Dodd has hit her for not having his money. Leonard offers to help her. She gives him Dodd's description and address. Natalie says that Dodd knows the Jaguar and he will be the one to find Leonard.
17 > The phone rings. Leonard rejects it and calls the front desk, asking to have his calls held.
17 < Leonard waits in Natalie's place. Natalie comes in, in a rush, telling Leonard about some guy called Dodd looking for Jimmy and his money. (As she speaks, she hides all pens and pencils away from her desk.) She asks Leonard to kill Dodd for money, but Leonard refuses, appalled. Then, Natalie gets Leonard angry, by insulting his wife and telling him, in the face, that she is about to use him; to exploit his condition in order to make him get rid of Dodd for her. Leonard punches her in the face and she walks out. Leonard starts looking for a pen, frantically. Natalie stays out of the house long enough for Leonard to forget. (How does she know, by the way?) Then, she walks back inside. GO TO 16 <
G. MEETING NATALIE
18 > Discount Inn, Room 21: Bert from the front desk knocks the door and tells Lenny that a cop wants to speak with him on the phone. Lenny refuses, saying he needs to look people in the eye when he talks to them.
18 < Natalie brings Lenny into her place. She asks him why he hasn't gone to the police. He says "They don't think the guy I'm looking for exists."
Flashback: Lenny wakes up and hears noise from the bathroom. He enters to see a hooded man killing his wife. He shoots the man dead. Then, a second man knocks him out.
Lenny tells Natalie that the police hasn't believed the story of the second guy, so they have closed the case. Natalie lets Lenny stay for a couple of days. As she exits, Lenny takes a Polaroid photo of her.
Lenny sits around. Natalie comes back, in a rush. (Go to 17 <.)
19 > In Discount Inn, Room 21, the phone rings. Lenny doesn't pick it up. An envelope slides under his door: Take My Call. In the envelope, Lenny finds a picture of himself, smiling to the camera. The phone rings again.
19 < In Ferdy's Bar, Natalie serves Lenny a beer on the house. Lenny drinks a sip and a sleazy man chuckles. When Lenny says that the last thing he remembers is his wife dying, Natalie stops him from drinking more. "I'll get you another one," she says.
20 > In Discount Inn, Room 21, Lenny picks up the phone and asks the -so called- cop if he has done something wrong he doesn't remember.
20 < In his designer suit, Lenny finds a coaster from Ferdy's Bar. Behind it, handwritten: "Come by after, Natalie."
Lenny walks into the bar. Natalie is very hostile to him, asking him whether he is or works for Teddy. When Lenny says he doesn't remember anything, Natalie tests him: she pours a glass of beer and then makes everyone spit in it, including Lenny. Then, after a while, she serves the glass to Lenny (on the house), who drinks from it.
21 > In Discount Inn, Room 21, on the phone, Lenny says that he is afraid that he has done something bad like Sammy. He tells how Sammy's story has ended.
After Sammy's wife asks for Lenny's opinion, she goes back home where she does a final test to her husband: she asks him again and again for her insulin shot. Sammy, indeed, gives her multiple shots, without remembering. Sammy's wife goes into a coma and Sammy has no idea what has happened.
Lenny draws the conclusion: Sammy was faking all signs of recognition. The same does Lenny, now.
21 < The Jaguar stops screeching in front of a tattoo parlour. Lenny holds a handwritten note: Tattoo Fact 6: Car License SG...
As the tattooist works on Lenny's left thigh (which he has shaven earlier), Teddy comes in. He has seen the Jaguar and wants Lenny out of town. He tells Lenny that a "bad cop" is after him, since Lenny is connected to the drug dealer Jimmy Grant and he urges Lenny to change clothes and leave town. Lenny takes the bag Teddy gives him and goes to the back room. There, he checks his designer suit pockets. He sees "DON'T BELIEVE HIS LIES," once again, at the back of Teddy's Polaroid. He also finds the Ferdy's Bar coaster (with Natalie's note), as well as the remains of burnt Polaroids. He escapes through the window.
He reaches Ferdy's Bar. Natalie sees the car and thinks it's Jimmy. When she sees Lenny, she apologises and goes into the bar.
H. KILLING THE WRONG GUY
22 > In Discount Inn, Room 21, on the phone, Lenny tells the cop that he is ready to go and meet this drug dealer Jimmy Grant. He packs all his stuff and goes to the Inn lobby, where he meets Teddy (introduced to him as officer Gammel).
Teddy takes him to a pickup truck. Lenny takes Teddy's picture and writes "Teddy" underneath, after Teddy's request. Lenny leaves with the truck.
Lenny parks the pickup truck outside the abandoned industrial building. He enters and looks around. Jimmy arrives in his Jaguar and calls for Teddy, but finds only Lenny, whom he knows from before as the "memory man." Lenny knocks him down. Jimmy tries to calm Lenny down and offers him $200,000, which he has in the Jaguar. Lenny refuses to be bargained with and strangles Jimmy, thinking that he is the killer of his wife. He takes a Polaroid of Jimmy's body and wears his clothes.
This is the moment where the B&W storyline joins the coloured one.
As Lenny drags Jimmy's body to the building's basement, half-dead Jimmy utters something that sounds like "Sammy." Lenny panics. A moment later, he sees Teddy arriving with his car. Through the window, Lenny identifies Teddy from his Polaroid. Realizing that he has done something wrong, Lenny pretends he doesn't remember and calls Teddy in to help him with "a guy who has been hurt bad and needs to get to a doctor." Teddy bites the bait and goes in with him, pretending that he doesn't know him either. Lenny leads him to Jimmy's body and knocks Teddy down. "He is not the guy," says Lenny, demanding explanations. Teddy tries to convince him that Jimmy is the killer of Lenny's wife and that he tried to make some money ($200,000!) on the side. When Lenny doesn't buy that, Teddy admits that he has been using him, revealing some shocking information: Lenny has actually killed the real assailant, one year ago, but he hasn't taken satisfaction, so Teddy has set him up into killing again. On top of that, Lenny's wife survived the assault, but Lenny killed her with insulin shots; Sammy Jankis's story has been his own. Refusing to accept it, Lenny has created an endless manhunt. Lenny pulls a gun at Teddy, but Teddy knows that he wouldn't do it. "You are not a killer, that's why you are so good at it!" Teddy grins.
This is where the "killing the wrong guy" theme pays off in full. Up to here, we have seen Leonard being exploited by minor and major antagonists, namely: BERT, the reception desk guy, who tricks Leonard into checking in twice, in order to make extra money for his boss, NATALIE, who tricks Leonard into beating up Dodd, Jimmy's boss, and TEDDY, who makes Leonard kill drug dealer Jimmy, in order to get his stash.
In a clever finale, instead of clearing it all out, Leonard decides to get tricked once more. Using his handicap, he decides to trick himself into tracing down and killing Teddy, as another John G.
Then, Lenny conceives a plan B: tricking himself into believing that Teddy is the John G. he is looking for. (Conveniently, Teddy's name is, actually, John G.) He grabs Teddy's car key and throws it into the bushes. While Teddy is looking for it, Lenny writes "DON'T BELIEVE HIS LIES," underneath Lenny's Polaroid. He also burns the Polaroid of Jimmy's body and himself smiling. Finally, he makes a note of Teddy's licence plate (SG...) and drives off in Jimmy's Jaguar.
One of the major holes in this film is that there could have been a shorter way to get back to Teddy: Leonard could have simply written: "HE IS THE ONE. KILL HIM," behind Teddy's Polaroid, instead of marking down his licence plate. It doesn't require less conscience, since noting down the plate equally means targeting Teddy as John G. The whole Natalie and Dodd situation could have been avoided and Memento would be a nice short film. Anyway, let's finish it...
As Lenny drives, struggling to convince himself that the world exists outside his own mind, he stops at the tattoo parlour. GO TO 21 <
THE END
LOGLINE
A man suffering from a condition that stops him from making new memories investigates his wife's murder.
A note about sequencing in this film:
This film progresses intercutting back and forth between two storylines. After a few minutes, the viewer realises that one storyline progresses normally (viewed in black and white, noted with a '>' symbol in the analysis that follows), but it intercuts with a story in colour, which progresses in reverse (written in yellow letters, in the analysis, and noted with a '<' symbol).
In most films, a sequence works both as a dramatic unit and as a unit of viewing experience. This, however, is not the case. It is very probable that the screenwriter, in order to structure the story, has sequenced it in a straight form. The viewer, though, experiences the story in a warped form. In order to distinguish the sequences in Memento, we have to acknowledge the difference and make a choice:
- We ignore the viewing experience and study the sequences based on the plot. In order to do this, we have to recut the film, relocate the scenes in the right order, and study the film as a straight timeline. (The film starts with Leonard, in black & white, sitting in his hotel room talking to himself. It finishes, in colour, with Teddy's head exploding.) Then, we can make our analysis of the straight plot.
- We accept and analyse the film as it is, considering the viewing experience as the most important factor.
Being in reverse, each sequence begins with its resolution: a goal is achieved. It ends with its inciting incident: the birth of the desire or need to achieve the previously mentioned goal.
But, enough with theory. Enjoy!
SYNOPSIS
A. KILLING HIM: Using a licence plate as a lead, Leonard kills John G., the man who has raped and murdered his wife.
B. FINDING HIS LICENCE PLATE: To repay Leonard for helping her, Natalie traces John G.'s licence plate.
C. GETTING RID OF DODD: Following Natalie's notes, Leonard drives a criminal named Dodd out of town. Moved by his help and his loss, Natalie promises to help Leonard with his quest.
D. MEETING DODD: Leonard confronts Dodd and manages to capture him.
(A part of me thinks that I should merge C and D into one sequence only. Maybe, in another analysis, some other time. I am leaving it as it is for the moment.)
E. REMEMBERING TO FORGET: Leonard makes an escort girl use some mementos of his wife to help him re-enact the last moments before her death. Realising that this doesn't help him, he burns the mementos.
F. NATALIE'S PLOT: Natalie tricks Leonard into helping her get rid of Dodd.
G. MEETING NATALIE: Recognising his Jaguar, Natalie meets Leonard and invites him over to her place, to check him out.
H. KILLING THE WRONG GUY: (The only sequence played out in a straight timeline.) Following Teddy's instructions, Leonard kills Natalie's boyfriend, a drug dealer. Teddy admits having taken advantage of Leonard's handicap for his own profit. Since he can't punish Teddy in cold blood, Leonard decides to trick himself into believing that Teddy is John G., starting the investigation that leads to Teddy's death, at the beginning of the film.
STEP OUTLINE
A. KILLING HIM
0 < LEONARD shoots TEDDY dead and takes a Polaroid photo of the body.
This is the only scene that plays in reverse motion, giving us a wink about the messed up timeline that will follow.
 |
| Memento's ballast: a series of boring, exposition scenes. Every time one pops up on the screen, you simply show patience, waiting for the juicy, coloured bits. |
1 < Teddy picks up Leonard from his hotel, the Discount Inn. Teddy shows his own car, suggesting that it is Leonard's, but Leonard doesn't buy it. He flashes a Polaroid of the Jaguar that sits in front of them, showing Teddy that he knows his own car. They get in the Jaguar and drive off.
Several references create the mystery around Leonard's story. Leonard has what he calls "his condition" and "his handicap," which he doesn't explain, yet. We know, though, that Polaroids play an important assisting role in this condition. Other elements that excite our curiosity are the broken Jaguar window as well as the pickup truck they see in the next scene.
They drive to an abandoned industrial building. When Teddy asks him why they are going there, Leonard says he doesn't know.
Outside the building, they see a pickup truck. Leonard opens the door and sees some bullets sitting on the truck's seat. Teddy tries to get him to lose interest in the whole setting, but Leonard steps into the building alone.
In the building, Leonard takes Teddy's Polaroid out of this pocket, flips it over, and reads: "DON'T BELIEVE HIS LIES. HE IS THE ONE. KILL HIM." Realising that he has found the man he has been looking for, Leonard knocks Teddy down and shoots him, despite Teddy's plea to listen to him and check the basement to find out "what Leonard has become."
Teddy tries to pull the same trick that he has used in scene 22 > (see near the end of the film): he attempts to tell Leonard "what he has become." We don't know what that is, yet. Leonard is ambivalent for a moment, but then, based perhaps on the note "DON'T BELIEVE HIS LIES," he decides not to listen and shoots Teddy dead.
2 > Leonard gets up and looks around the hotel room. He has a tattoo on his left hand: REMEMBER SAMMY JANKIS. Through voice over (his internal monologue), he explains that Sammy Jankis had the same problem with him. "I have a system," says Leonard. He has a piece of paper stuck on his thigh, that says: "SHAVE."
This whole series of black and white scenes are, actually, extremely boring. A voice over and an endless telephone conversation is all the action we are exposed to. We tolerate them, only thanks to the mystery: we try to suck on every piece of information we are given.
2 < In the motel room, Leonard writes "HE IS THE ONE. KILL HIM" at the back of Teddy's photograph and gets his gun ready. He walks out the room (this is room 304) and heads to the front desk.
BERT, the receptionist, lets Leonard explain about his condition before he reveals that he has already heard it all before. Leonard has had an injury, which prohibits him from making new memories. He pays Bert the bill for his room.
This is a nice example of "exposition as ammunition." That is, information used as an argument in a scene. Leonard explains his problem to Bert (and to the audience), but he does so with a dramatic purpose: to convince Bert about his problematic memory.
This scene also introduces an element that will be developed later: Leonard often pretends that he remembers. He pretends remembering having told Bert "I like looking at people in the eye when I speak to them."
Teddy comes and picks up Leonard. GO TO: 1 <
3 > Leonard, following notes that he has left around the room, shaves his thigh.
His voice-over goes on explaining (exposition, but not as ammunition) how his system works: he makes notes, tattooing them on himself.
 |
| "Why would people want to take advantage of someone with this condition?" Leonard doesn't know it, but this will turn out to be the number one problem in his life. |
3 < Leonard walks out of the bathroom of a restaurant. A waiter calls after him, bringing him some stuff that he has forgotten on his table: an envelope and his 304 room key. Leonard asks the waiter how to get to Discount Inn and jots down the directions.
Back at the Inn, Leonard opens the envelope, which reads: "From Natalie." Inside, he finds a photocopy of John Gammell's driver licence. Gammell is the man introduced as Teddy. Leonard calls Gammell's number and Teddy picks it up, telling Leonard to wait for him.
Teddy finds out that Leonard has somehow discovered his real name.
Comparing the photocopied licence with a tattoo on his (freshly shaven) thigh, he confirms that it is the man he has been looking for. He writes "HE IS THE ONE," on the flip side of Teddy's Polaroid. Then, looking at the rest of his tattoos, he sees "John G. raped and murdered my wife." He adds: "KILL HIM," to the note on the Polaroid. GO TO: 2 <
B. FINDING HIS LICENCE PLATE
4 > Leonard speaks on the phone with someone who claims they have spoken before. Leonard starts telling him about Sammy.
 |
| "You don't remember me!" Natalie admits defeat. A subtle love story, a trifle one-sided, falls apart. |
(This pays off Leonard's statement, in 1 <, that he doesn't know why he drives to the specific building with Teddy.)
Leonard's dialogue with Natalie exposes the film's main theme: When Natalie says, "even if you take revenge, you won't remember it," Leonard answers: "My actions still have meaning, even if I don't remember them." Leonard will go through a journey (or has gone already?!?) that will make him discover whether this statement is true.
5 > On phone, Leonard goes on about Sammy and his own past. Leonard used to be an insurance investigator, assigned to Sammy's case.
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| "I thought you split for good," Teddy tells Leonard. Throughout all the coloured scenes of the film, Teddy wants Leonard to leave town. We don't know why, yet. |
Leonard goes back to the Discount Inn's front desk. Instead of taking him to room 304, Bert gets confused and takes him to room 21, which has remains of Leonard's shaving. Cornered, Bert reveals that he has double-checked Leonard, taking advantage of his condition.
Bert is the first character we see taking advantage of Leonard's handicap for profit. This is, actually, the second time we see Bert playing with Leonard. The first time is in scene 2 <, when he pretends that he hears about Leonard's condition for the first time.
Soon, we will see that all everyone does is take advantage of Leonard's handicap.
In his pocket, Leonard finds a note about an appointment with Natalie. He walks off.
6 > On the phone, Leonard goes on about Sammy's case. Sammy had only a few-minute memory, but could operate the insulin shot to his diabetic wife.
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| Can Leonard remember to fall in love? Can a screenwriter forget that a love story is essential in every film? |
"I will help you, because you helped me," she says, springing a new mystery: what has Leonard done for her? The answer to this question is the backbone of what we could call Memento's Second Act.
C. GETTING RID OF DODD
7 > On the phone, Leonard explains about the tests they ran on Sammy, in order to check his ability to learn through repetition.
7 < Night. Leonard's Jaguar parks outside Natalie's. He knocks the door and, when Natalie opens, Leonard flashes a Polaroid of a guy named Dodd, gagged and beaten up. Leonard demands explanations. Natalie thanks him for helping her on "her problem" and calms him down.
Leonard fears that someone is trying to get him to kill the wrong guy. The "killing the wrong guy" theme reappears to keep itself alive until the end of the film, when it will pay off.
Natalie sees Leonard's tattoos and sympathises with his loss. She shows him a picture of her boyfriend, Jimmy Grant, who went to meet a guy named Teddy and never came back. She offers to help Leonard with his quest.
At night, lying in bed, Leonard reminisces about his wife. He takes Natalie's Polaroid and makes a note: "SHE HAS ALSO LOST SOMEONE, SHE WILL HELP YOU OUT OF PITY." He slips back into bed with her and falls asleep.
8 > Leonard goes on about Sammy: Sammy doesn't respond to the tests and his claim gets turned down, while Leonard takes a promotion.
8 < Leonard wakes up in a hotel room and finds DODD in the closet, tied up and beaten up. Teddy arrives and Leonard lets him in, after consulting his "Teddy" Polaroid picture. Teddy sees Dodd and panics: "Is this John G.?" he asks Leonard. Leonard finds a Polaroid of Dodd, in the present condition, that says: "DODD. GET RID OF HIM. ASK NATALIE." They argue about what to do with him and decide to get rid of him. They walk him out of the hotel and drive him out of town. They return with Teddy's car. Leonard says he will find what that was all about.
His Jaguar parks outside Natalie's and demands explanations. GO TO 7 <
D. MEETING DODD
9 > About Sammy: his wife puts pressure on him, struggling to figure out if he fakes his condition.
9 < Leonard is in a hotel bathroom, holding a whisky bottle, not knowing what he is there for. He takes a shower. Dodd enters and Leonard instinctively attacks him, knocking him out with the whisky bottle. Then, he hides him in the closet and takes a Polaroid of him.
Consulting his notes, he finds one written by Natalie's hand, giving Dodd's description and room address, along with the note: "Put him onto Teddy or just get rid of him for Natalie." He makes a note on Dodd's Polaroid: "DODD. GET RID OF HIM..." He calls Teddy, after consulting his "Teddy" Polaroid and leaves a voice message inviting him over. As he waits, he falls asleep. GO TO 8 <
10 > As Leonard speaks, the other person hangs up. Leonard starts a home-made tattoo, using ink from a ball pen.
10 < Leonard runs, as Dodd gives chase.
A touch of comedy here, as it takes Leonard a moment to realise that it is Dodd chasing him and not the other way around!
He jumps into his Jaguar and drives off. He consults his notes and finds Natalie's "Dodd Description" paper. He drives to Dodd's room to ambush him.
He forces open the wrong door (9 instead of 6). Then, he enters the right room, takes the whiskey bottle as a weapon and waits in the bathroom. And waits. And waits. And forgets what he is waiting for. GO TO 9 <
It is notable that Leonard makes the same choice of weapon twice. He picks the whisky bottle to knock Dodd out, then forgets about why he is holding the bottle. Afterwards, when Dodd comes in, he instinctively knocks him out with the same bottle!
11 > Leonard, about to tattoo on himself: "FACT 5: ACCESS TO DRUGS."
11 < As Leonard returns from an isolated location, Dodd starts giving chase. He shoots the Jaguar driver's window, shattering it. Leonard starts running. GO TO 10 <
E. REMEMBERING TO FORGET
12 > The phone rings, as Leonard is about to start the tattoo.
12 < Night. Leonard goes to an isolated place and burns some of his wife's mementos: a hairbrush, a book, a teddy bear...
During a flashback, Leonard teases his wife about her reading the same book "a thousand times." She says that she enjoys it.
A subtle implication of the "killing the wrong guy" theme: Leonard can kill the wrong guy a thousand times and still enjoy it.
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| "I've probably done this before, burn truckloads of your stuff. I can't remember to forget you." |
13 > Leonard speaks on the phone. The other person tells something about drugs, making Leonard consult his notes, excited. There are pages missing.
13 < Night. Leonard wakes up from the sound of a slamming door. He sees his wife's mementos scattered around the room. He calls on her, as he opens the bathroom door, only to find a call girl snorting cocaine on the toilet seat. He asks her to leave and takes his wife's stuff away for burning. GO TO 12 <
14 > On phone: Leonard realises that John G. is a drug dealer. He changes the tattoo he is about to do into: "FACT 5: DRUG DEALER."
14 < Leonard arrives at Discount Inn's room 304 for the first time. He calls an escort agency, ordering a girl.
The escort girl arrives. Leonard explains to the girl what he wants her to do: put his wife's mementos around, let him sleep, and close herself into the bathroom, slamming the door.
Later, she does as told. Leonard wakes up from the sound of the slamming door.
F. NATALIE'S PLOT
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| Sammy this, Sammy that. Sammy's story gets interesting, eventually. |
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| "Lenny, let me inform you. Your business here is very much finished." Once more, Teddy wants Leonard to stay out of town. "Don't trust Natalie. When she gets jammed up, she's gonna use you to protect herself." Never mind your notes, Lenny; Teddy doesn't lie. |
16 > On phone: Leonard justifies his reply to Sammy's wife as he uncovers the bandages of another recent tattoo: "NEVER ANSWER THE PHONE." Cold sweat runs down Leonard's spine, as the other person hangs up again.
16 < Leonard frantically looks for a pen in Natalie's house. Natalie comes in, with a bruised face. She tells him that Dodd has hit her for not having his money. Leonard offers to help her. She gives him Dodd's description and address. Natalie says that Dodd knows the Jaguar and he will be the one to find Leonard.
17 > The phone rings. Leonard rejects it and calls the front desk, asking to have his calls held.
17 < Leonard waits in Natalie's place. Natalie comes in, in a rush, telling Leonard about some guy called Dodd looking for Jimmy and his money. (As she speaks, she hides all pens and pencils away from her desk.) She asks Leonard to kill Dodd for money, but Leonard refuses, appalled. Then, Natalie gets Leonard angry, by insulting his wife and telling him, in the face, that she is about to use him; to exploit his condition in order to make him get rid of Dodd for her. Leonard punches her in the face and she walks out. Leonard starts looking for a pen, frantically. Natalie stays out of the house long enough for Leonard to forget. (How does she know, by the way?) Then, she walks back inside. GO TO 16 <
G. MEETING NATALIE
18 > Discount Inn, Room 21: Bert from the front desk knocks the door and tells Lenny that a cop wants to speak with him on the phone. Lenny refuses, saying he needs to look people in the eye when he talks to them.
18 < Natalie brings Lenny into her place. She asks him why he hasn't gone to the police. He says "They don't think the guy I'm looking for exists."
Flashback: Lenny wakes up and hears noise from the bathroom. He enters to see a hooded man killing his wife. He shoots the man dead. Then, a second man knocks him out.
Lenny tells Natalie that the police hasn't believed the story of the second guy, so they have closed the case. Natalie lets Lenny stay for a couple of days. As she exits, Lenny takes a Polaroid photo of her.
Lenny sits around. Natalie comes back, in a rush. (Go to 17 <.)
19 > In Discount Inn, Room 21, the phone rings. Lenny doesn't pick it up. An envelope slides under his door: Take My Call. In the envelope, Lenny finds a picture of himself, smiling to the camera. The phone rings again.
19 < In Ferdy's Bar, Natalie serves Lenny a beer on the house. Lenny drinks a sip and a sleazy man chuckles. When Lenny says that the last thing he remembers is his wife dying, Natalie stops him from drinking more. "I'll get you another one," she says.
20 > In Discount Inn, Room 21, Lenny picks up the phone and asks the -so called- cop if he has done something wrong he doesn't remember.
20 < In his designer suit, Lenny finds a coaster from Ferdy's Bar. Behind it, handwritten: "Come by after, Natalie."
Lenny walks into the bar. Natalie is very hostile to him, asking him whether he is or works for Teddy. When Lenny says he doesn't remember anything, Natalie tests him: she pours a glass of beer and then makes everyone spit in it, including Lenny. Then, after a while, she serves the glass to Lenny (on the house), who drinks from it.
21 > In Discount Inn, Room 21, on the phone, Lenny says that he is afraid that he has done something bad like Sammy. He tells how Sammy's story has ended.
After Sammy's wife asks for Lenny's opinion, she goes back home where she does a final test to her husband: she asks him again and again for her insulin shot. Sammy, indeed, gives her multiple shots, without remembering. Sammy's wife goes into a coma and Sammy has no idea what has happened.
Lenny draws the conclusion: Sammy was faking all signs of recognition. The same does Lenny, now.
21 < The Jaguar stops screeching in front of a tattoo parlour. Lenny holds a handwritten note: Tattoo Fact 6: Car License SG...
As the tattooist works on Lenny's left thigh (which he has shaven earlier), Teddy comes in. He has seen the Jaguar and wants Lenny out of town. He tells Lenny that a "bad cop" is after him, since Lenny is connected to the drug dealer Jimmy Grant and he urges Lenny to change clothes and leave town. Lenny takes the bag Teddy gives him and goes to the back room. There, he checks his designer suit pockets. He sees "DON'T BELIEVE HIS LIES," once again, at the back of Teddy's Polaroid. He also finds the Ferdy's Bar coaster (with Natalie's note), as well as the remains of burnt Polaroids. He escapes through the window.
He reaches Ferdy's Bar. Natalie sees the car and thinks it's Jimmy. When she sees Lenny, she apologises and goes into the bar.
H. KILLING THE WRONG GUY
22 > In Discount Inn, Room 21, on the phone, Lenny tells the cop that he is ready to go and meet this drug dealer Jimmy Grant. He packs all his stuff and goes to the Inn lobby, where he meets Teddy (introduced to him as officer Gammel).
Teddy takes him to a pickup truck. Lenny takes Teddy's picture and writes "Teddy" underneath, after Teddy's request. Lenny leaves with the truck.
Lenny parks the pickup truck outside the abandoned industrial building. He enters and looks around. Jimmy arrives in his Jaguar and calls for Teddy, but finds only Lenny, whom he knows from before as the "memory man." Lenny knocks him down. Jimmy tries to calm Lenny down and offers him $200,000, which he has in the Jaguar. Lenny refuses to be bargained with and strangles Jimmy, thinking that he is the killer of his wife. He takes a Polaroid of Jimmy's body and wears his clothes.
This is the moment where the B&W storyline joins the coloured one.
As Lenny drags Jimmy's body to the building's basement, half-dead Jimmy utters something that sounds like "Sammy." Lenny panics. A moment later, he sees Teddy arriving with his car. Through the window, Lenny identifies Teddy from his Polaroid. Realizing that he has done something wrong, Lenny pretends he doesn't remember and calls Teddy in to help him with "a guy who has been hurt bad and needs to get to a doctor." Teddy bites the bait and goes in with him, pretending that he doesn't know him either. Lenny leads him to Jimmy's body and knocks Teddy down. "He is not the guy," says Lenny, demanding explanations. Teddy tries to convince him that Jimmy is the killer of Lenny's wife and that he tried to make some money ($200,000!) on the side. When Lenny doesn't buy that, Teddy admits that he has been using him, revealing some shocking information: Lenny has actually killed the real assailant, one year ago, but he hasn't taken satisfaction, so Teddy has set him up into killing again. On top of that, Lenny's wife survived the assault, but Lenny killed her with insulin shots; Sammy Jankis's story has been his own. Refusing to accept it, Lenny has created an endless manhunt. Lenny pulls a gun at Teddy, but Teddy knows that he wouldn't do it. "You are not a killer, that's why you are so good at it!" Teddy grins.
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| Sammy is Leonard. Fight Club. Shutter Island. Personally, I get fed up with all the cases of "unreliable narrators," pulling rabbits out of hats at films' twisted ends. |
In a clever finale, instead of clearing it all out, Leonard decides to get tricked once more. Using his handicap, he decides to trick himself into tracing down and killing Teddy, as another John G.
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| "Can I just let myself forget what you've told me?" In a minute, Lenny. |
One of the major holes in this film is that there could have been a shorter way to get back to Teddy: Leonard could have simply written: "HE IS THE ONE. KILL HIM," behind Teddy's Polaroid, instead of marking down his licence plate. It doesn't require less conscience, since noting down the plate equally means targeting Teddy as John G. The whole Natalie and Dodd situation could have been avoided and Memento would be a nice short film. Anyway, let's finish it...
As Lenny drives, struggling to convince himself that the world exists outside his own mind, he stops at the tattoo parlour. GO TO 21 <
THE END
