Comments on: Memento Explained

By: luke

luke — Sat, 19 May 2012 20:31:27 +0000

Its simple guys, leos wife survives the rape ,but leos head is slammed in and his memory problem starts.Leo kills his wife soon after over injecting her.Leo is sent to the mental hospital were teddy rescues him and uses him to his own greed after he helps kill the real killer and his greed over comes him.Natalie knows that teddy used leo which is why she keeps saying teddy was involved with her husband/friends murder.

Leo creates the whole samy story, which is basically what really happened to him and his wife.He had a memory problem killed his wife and ended up in the mental house.How ever leo makes this other character sam up to separate reality with this fake sam story with the use of constant repetition telling every single person he meets the story of sammy over and over again.Eventually not even needing the i did it tattoo.

Leos figure in samys fake reality could honestly be tedy.Since the samy story is nothing more than leos past reality he broke off into a story he tells others.

Then who raped leos wife?Well teddy in the heat of the moment spills it all out he died years ago with teddys help.But leo does not want to accept the truth and writes on his picutre “Teddy lies” to avoid the truth hes been avoiding. He finally realizes that no matter how many times he repeats the samy story or attempts to find a imaginary killer teddy is the voice of truth(yes mixed with a little greed),and kills him.At the end he stares at the bloody killing of teddy ONCE MORE TWISTING REALITY WITH repetition. PROBABLY SOON FORGETTING HE KILLED TEDDY!!

By: KG

KG — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:55:40 +0000

@Steph That theory is nice, but doesn’t really work out. For instance when he is chasing Dodd and goes back to his hotel to get the beat on him he sits down in the bathroom with the bottle of alcohol. Then he ‘restarts’ and doesn’t understand why he is holding the bottle, so he starts to take a shower. So if he was faking, why would he do this? This clearly doesn’t benefit him and he is in private so it doesn’t make sense to fake it.

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:21:25 +0000

@Steph

Sorry that theory doesn’t make sense on a lot of levels but to start with… Why would Sammy go on consciously faking a mental illness and let himself be used by Teddy when he’s been acquitted of murdering his wife? I could see him faking it to get off of the murder rap, but what benefit is it for him to then continue to be faking and to be used Teddy? If Sammy wants to still kill people he no longer needs the whole guise of a fake illness.
Second, the movie shows him faking things while he’s in private. There wouldn’t be any need for him to be consciously faking things in private.

By: steph

steph — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:59:49 +0000

A new therory…
I have a new theory not discussed and so far no one I talked to likes it. I call it the “reverse psycho theory” based on the hitchcook film and not the mental illness.
If you recall in psycho the audience knows a lot more about the murders than the characters in the film and the characters believe the murders were committed for money, when in fact they were the result of a mental illness and money had nothing to do with it.
In memento the opposite is true. The audience knows less than the characters and the “murders’ were committed for money, not on the basis of a mental illness….WHAT THE HEY???
My theory is that Lenny is faking it, after learning of the “illness” of a single man known as Sammy Jenkins and he learns all about it and plans to murder his wife…..
In the story of Sammy, you may recall that his “wife” turns back her watch and requests that Sammy inject her. But if she wanted to commit sucide, why would she need to turn her watch? Wouldnt she just tell Sammy to inject her, as Sammy would have no idea what time it was..
The reason for changing the watch is FOR THE POLICE AFTERWARDS…The police would check the dead wife’s insulin level and find it high, BUT AS HER WATCH WAS WRONG….she must have told he ill husband the wrong time and he being ill couldnt tell. So “Lenny” just overdosed her, and changed her watch. They put him in the institution until they figured it was an accident and he left…
He works with Teddy to put together schemes where he kills drug dealers etc, claiming the mental illness and keeping the money. Teddy believes his illness, but uses it to get rich with Lenny.
Only Teddy gets greedy so Lenny plans with a new girlfriend Natalie how to get rid of Teddy and steal Jimmy’s money. On the night of Jimmy’s death, Natalie puts the cup protector in Jimmy’s pocket knowing that when Lenny kills him and takes the clothes he will find it. Also Lenny throws the keys away so Teddy cant follow him to Nataile.
Lenny and Natalie fight to keep Teddy off guard as Teddy is watching him, as he “surprises: Lenny in the car.
In fact the scene with the tatoos of Lenny laying with his “wife” are not imaginary but in the future.
The ‘i did it” doesnt involve the killing of Jimmy g but the success of Lenny fooling everyone into thinking he has a mental illness which he can use to kill people and take their money.
The film ‘ends” (although this is the middle of the story) with Lenny driving an expensive car with 200,000 dollars in it.
The events after that are to cover their tracks (ie Natalie and Lenny) by getting rid of Dood and killing Teddy before they leave town to do it again.
In this case Lenny is simply letting everyone believe he is mentally ill so he can kill for money….the opposiite of the Hitchcook film in which a pscyho is killing unrelated to money…

Think about it…Another interesting theory..

By: James

James — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:58:10 +0000

There ya go :
The visual map.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/4282/visualmapofthefilmmemen.png

By: Bradley Civick

Bradley Civick — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:15:21 +0000

In regards to whatever happened to Leonard after the events in the movie, Nolan pretty much suggests Leonard continues what he’s been doing, just starting over when need be, in a never ending cycle, like a junkie in the downward spiral of addiction that only end in death or arrest.. The website ‘news’ article supports this, since he’s gone, but he’s left behind all his ‘work/clues/photos’. I think maybe Nolan throws out a little clue to Leonard in ‘Batman Begins’. The ‘Joe Chill’ character looks at lot like Leonard during the trial (a Leonard with many, many miles on him physically). Joe Chill is wearing the same color suit and blue shirt that Leonard wears most of the movie, as he explains to the judge his ‘down on his luck, never gets a break story’.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:10:45 +0000

SPOILER ALERT ( SHUTTER ISLAND )

i cant be assed writing anything too long haha but i agree with josh in that i think lenny after realizing he had killed his wife (as in shutter island) he tries to repress his memories and almost becomes mentally unstable.

only thing with this theory is if you believe his wife was diabetic and he actually killed her or not.

By: Kyle Bond

Kyle Bond — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 07:57:39 +0000

Anyone ever think about how Leonard didn’t like it when is wife called him Lenny? Maybe this is because Lenny sounds an awful lot like Sammy. Maybe his wife actually used to call him Sammy (because he was/is Sammy), but Leonard subconsciously manipulated this memory so that his wife called him Lenny instead. He doesn’t like the memory of his wife calling him Lenny because he is getting to close to the memory of being Sammy, and he has trained himself through habit to avoid this memory.

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:52:39 +0000

@Brian…
I definitely believe the condition Lenny is describing when he talks about Sammy is referring to himself… and in fact it was Lenny that killed his wife with the overdose…so in a sense “he was Sammy” however, as I start to point on page 17, I’m not convinced though that there wasn’t “a real Sammy” ( A Sammy that may or may not have had a similar condition.)

The reason I say that is referenced on page 17, but it boils down to the last scene were Teddy says so much stuff “about Sammy.” Even if Lenny (and Dodd) only heard about Sammy from Lenny’s ramblings over the year(s), it wouldn’t make sense that Teddy would bother to “play along” like he did at the end. Teddy says things like “Lenny, Sammy was a con man. He was faker.” and “Sammy never had a wife.” If there really never was some kind of Sammy’ why does Teddy even bother acting is if there was? Why not just say “Teddy, you’re Sammy. There is no Sammy. I tell you this all the time but you never remember it because you’re messed up.” Teddy never says this though.

I still don’t get though why Dodd’s whisper “Sammy” when Lenny is dragging him down the basement half dead? Dodd obviously knew Lenny (I happen to think Dodd and Teddy worked other deals together using Lenny for their criminal needs.), but I can’t figure out why Dodd would whisper “Sammy.” (I’m leaning towards the guess that it was thrown in just to really let you know that Lenny was Sammy – in the sense of they Sammy that Lenny was describing. )

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 02:03:47 +0000

What’s the chance that Lenny had a personal experience in his past with a person he now shares the same condition in a movie told in this matter? The chances are nonexistent. Lenny and Sammy are the same.