Can I just point out that Jeff – your comment is on a 10 year old post – with almost 250 comments?? Hahah.
What’s cool is that my kids absolutely love Christopher Nolan, and I’ve been holding this one back from them for their last Nolan movie? Other than his new stuff of course. Can’t wait to show them this one. We just watched Interstellar (we call it Underseller for some reason) and my daughter was a sobbing mess at the end. They enjoyed it.

Personally, I have never liked the “I did it” fantasy explanation – but it really is the most realistic explanation… just saying.

1. Nolan has admitted that the b/w scenes (at least in the beginning) are an objective View of what is taking place. Worst case, these are the least fictional/inaccurate in the film.

2. It requires less rationalization to believe Lenny is in fact an Insurance Claims Investigator than he is anything else. This does not rule out that he might have once been a cop/detective. But if what we see in the scenes, is true, it helps reduce the rationale required to accept that most of Lenny’s narrative presented in the film is fact or truthful.

Such as, a lot of the posts / theories here question the possibility of our protagonist suffering from the same obscure illness as Sammy. Although, when you consider Lenny is a insurance claims investigator, his job is to question and disprove outlandish or obsecure claims. A normal viewer would not be familiar with such an illness, which only adds credibility to his assertion of being an investigator.

3. The question of the attack by one man or two is more simple. The film clearly shows two attackers. Whom Teddy confirms the existence of (paraphrase) “two addicts too doped up to realize she wasn’t home alone”. A previous poster pointed out that Lenny states (in a b/w scene) that the police were not even looking for others, they had the case wrapped up. But the entire supposition of the events in the police report only makes sense if you want to believe it. Is it possible Lenny shot the lone Gunman after being stuck in the head to such an extent it caused brain damage? Yes…possible, but highly unlikely. If you want to follow that kind of rational, why not invent a car accident as the reason for her death or a different job for Lenny. Don’t over think it, follow the path of least resistance.

4. A lot of comments state or theorize that Sammy was, for a fact, a con man. (Subjectively: I do not recall Lenny ever stating that as an opinion or fact, but he does say otherwise in a b/w scene) Objectively, Teddy did in fact call Sammy a con man. (I will come back to this later) If Sammy is a con man, what did he gain? During the investigation, Lenny “proved” Sammy’s illness was not physical but mental…stated over and over. At around 1 1/2 hours into the movie, Lenny says he didn’t believe Sammy, that his wife didn’t believe him. Says he was wrong about Sammy and his wife. They were NOT after the money, she just wanted to understand what was wrong with him.

This is important, because if you are open to the possibility that: a) b/w scenes are objective / the most truthful, than Sammy was not a con man, and he unknowingly killed his wife. b) it was in fact Sammy and not Lenny who killed his diabetic wife.

5. (Subjective) This monologue for Sammy, to me, seems to be something that is not often taken into account. The Remember Sammy Jankis tattoo serves not only as a reminder that he has a similar injury or at least some type of memory loss, but also a reminder that no one believed Sammy, not even his own wife. And now, as Lenny chases his own wife’s murdered and the person who inflicted his memory loss, no one believes his story either. He holds himself at least partially responsible for Mrs. Jankis’ death, and regrets his decisions. Because by disproving the claim, he (Lenny) did benefit and will always have to live with it. Remember Sammy Jankis, for him, is a powerful message that should never be forgotten.

Again, I ask, what did Sammy gain by attempting to fake the memory loss? Remember, he didn’t even get away with faking it because no one would believe him.

6. If you are following the path of, the least rational required is the most likely truth, is it improbable to continue to believe that Lenny would strike a strong connection with the subject of one of his earliest claims investigations that he has come to deeply regret? (Subjective: I have mistakes that still haunt me to this day. I constantly dissect them and rehash them over and over in my mind. I do not believe it requires any leap of the imagination to relate to Lenny’s situation.

7. Teddy’s statement at the end of the film were truthful. Why would you believe this as fact when, in the very same scene, Teddy admits to lying and manipulating Lenny for at least the past year? Objectively, the more credible of the two would be Lenny’s long term memories over Teddy’s version of the truth. While Lenny cannot be trusted for any accurate recollection since the attack, everything, thus far in the film regarding Lenny’s memory has been accurate.

The first time the film actually states that Lenny’s long term memories are factually incorrect is during Teddy’s rant at the end of the film. This is the same time he denies being a corrupt cop, then immediately admits to it. Right after Lenny confronts him about his lies. (Subjective) Teddy would say anything at this point to throw Lenny off and confuse him. Make him start to question what he knows is truth…and it works!! A lot of the posts here implore us to believe because of a slight hesitation in Lenny, he is faking and or he did kill his wife and that we should believe the narrative that Sammy is made up or that Lenny overdosed his diabetic wife. Their proof is the one brief visual of Lenny as Sammy. That is a stretch, considering how many times both in color and black & white the film has shown us the opposite is the truth.

Have you ever been told something inaccurate from long ago, that you absolutely know to be inaccurate, but for a brief moment…you doubt even yourself? That is what he pictured in his head and that is how Nolan decided to visually depict that hesitation or uncertainty from Lenny. That does not negate the other 90 mins of the movie. It was a lie conceived to scramble Lenny’s conscience long enough for Teddy to sneak out and for Lenny to forget. And it almost worked.

Almost done.

8. Lenny flashing to being with his wife and a new tattoo is just his imagination. Something he deeply desires. The film clearly shows the tattoo is I’ve Done It, not I did it. He was simply day dreaming about something he wished would actually come true. A fantasy. We all do it. His ending monologue states…do I lie to myself to be happy. That dream was a lie to himself that made him happy. His wife is not alive. Again, I root this in the 90+ mins of the film that tell me that she is dead and he did not kill her.

Lastly, I would just say that, even though this is framed as mostly an objective View, it is still tainted by my beliefs. But i truly believe that accepting the film for what it is telling me until it implies otherwise, while using the logic that the path of least rationalization required to answer the questions is highly likely to be the truth or more truthful than not.

I hope someone sees this, I would love to hear your thoughts on my perspective.

P.S. while there are many points i did not discuss because they did not qualify as vital to me expressing my view of the film, I will say the idea that Lenny or Sammy have a 15 min window for memory laps is just supposition and disproven in the film. i.e. when Lenny is being chased by Dodd, he did not run for 15 mins, even if you accept the premise that we did not see the entire chase. Once Lenny reset and then Dodd shot at him he was not 5 mins away from his car much less 15 mins away.

1. In the I’ve Done It scene his wife is stroking his chest and tattoos in the same way that Natalie does earlier in the movie.

2. Lenny imagines Natalie as his wife in a similar way to how he hires the prostitute to portray his wife by closing the bathroom door, etc.

3. Both he and Natalie have experienced grief and loss and are now able to heal by making peace with the past.

4. Teddy has been the catalyst for Lenny’s continued cycle of revenge all along, preventing him from ending the cycle so that he can keep using Lenny for his own profit. When Lenny finally kills Teddy he breaks that cycle and gets the I Did It tattoo.

5. He is now free to move on with his life and start again, though his imagining Natalie as his wife implies that some memories still remain.

Thoughts?

So sweet version…