*** Official "MEMENTO" Discussion Thread - Page 5

I believe that Sammy was a real person, but just a con man. All Lenny did was put Sammy's name on his own life in his memory, basically.

-Tom

I noticed that leonard says that he doesn't like be called lenny. He says something along the lines of my wife use to call me lenny and I HATED IT!!! He says it in a tone that makes me wonder if he killed her on purpose. Anyone ever thought of it like that?

The photo where he's smiling with the cuts on his face. Where the hell did that photo come from?

Also, is there anybody who really knows what the hell is going on in this movie? Did Christopher Nolan ever explain this movie somewhere? Thanks

If you're referring to the Polariod at the end of the film that Leonard burns, I believe that is the picture that Teddy shot right after Leonard killed his wife's real attacker so that he'd always remember it. Leonard destroyed it because he didn't want to face the fact that his life is now pointless and Teddy has been using him for a long time.

OK...here it is...
Teddy was the man that hit Lenny in the head when his wife was raped. He was hit with a SAP. Isn't that what police carry. Lenny also has a police report on the rape...but a number of pages are missing. This is because Teddy was investigating the rape (even though he was there) and took out any info that would implicate him. Teddy then tries to lead Lenny onto any other James G so hoping that Lenny will stop his quest. That is why he is always trying to get him to leave town. Whoever raped Lenny's wife is not a killer or he would have killed both Lenny and his wife when he cold cocked him in the bathroom.

How? How would one devote yourself at that age, to getting married and just sitting there and then being committed to a basket acse hospital (or so if he was real)?



Leonard never killed her to begin with....

-Bert

Theron:


From my understanding of the film, Teddy wanted Leonard out of town because Leonard was driving Jimmy the drug dealer's car and wearing his clothes. Once people noticed Jimmy was missing, they would eventually notice Leonard was carrying all of his possessions.

Most importantly though, for Teddy, was the money in the trunk of the car. Take notice as to how many times Teddy tries to get into the car.

I'm curious about a couple of things...1)Lenny has this huge file on the murder. It looks like a police file, and in fact he mentions that it has some pages missing. First of all, where did he get this file. I would assume Teddy since he was the officer that was on the case. And if this is so, did Teddy remove the pages that were in the file or were they just lost...2)If this is the police file, wouldn't it be clear that his wife did not die in the attack. I mean, there is a big difference between a rape case and a rape/murder. It would seem that all he would have to do is read the first page and realize that his wife did not die at that time...3)Lenny clearly states that the police are not looking for the second rapist because they do not think that it was only one man. If this is the case, where did Lenny get the name John G...4)Since Lenny cannot remember anything for longer than 15 minutes after the assult, there is no way he could put the memory of his wife dying from an overdose of insulin onto the memory on Sammy Jankis. If Sammy Jankis was a conman, then that is where his memory would end. How could you confuse your memory with the life of Sammy if you still think your wife is alive every time you wake up...5)Back to the police file; if we assume that Teddy is feeding him information, why in the hell would give him the name of John G. when Teddy knew that this was his initials. That would be pretty stupid for a cop to do.
If someone could answer these questions, I would be pretty impressed.
In conclusion, I feel that it went down like this. Teddy knows about Lenny's condition because he has the police file. Teddy is all about getting the drug dealer, but also getting the money. He learns of a dealer with (what he thinks is the name John G.). It is just coincidence that he has the same intials. Now, Dodd is the dealer and Jimmy (w/ Natalie) are the runners. Now remember, since Teddy has been on the case of Lenny since the beginning, he has access to the drugs left in the car after Lenny's wife is attacked, and he wants to sell them. He sets up the deal. Then Teddy realizes that this guys name is James, no John, so he tells Lenny this and Lenny gets his tatoo corrected to say "John G. or James." Jimmy shows up, with a coaster that says "Ask for Natalie" to give to Teddy. The plan being for Teddy to get the money and then drop off the drugs to Natalie where Dodd would then come pick them up. But then Teddy sends in Lenny after giving him the drugdealer info to take car of Jimmy. Jimmy is dead, and yes Teddy tries to get in his car for the rest of the movie. When Lenny shows up at the bar, Natalie realizes what has happen, but she is not stupid. Even though Jimmy and her were friends, it was mostly about business. She knows that Lenny has the money. Therefore, she gets Lenny to take car of Dodd or steer him towards Teddy (who Dodd has never met.) Dodd just wants his drugs for the $200,000 that he gave to Jimmy and Natalie. Lenny and Teddy take care of Dodd. Natalie knows that the only other person that knows about the money is Teddy. She gets him the info about Teddy, and the exact place where Jimmy went to meet Lenny. Teddy is gone, and Natalie can tell Lenny anything she wants to get that money. In fact, she had Lenny's motel room key for a while. I bet that she went to his room just to ckeck out if the money was there....just a thought.

Teddy was the officer assigned to the case and he helped Leonard track down the second intruder. As Teddy told Leonard at the end of the movie he thought that once Leonard dealt with the second intruder that his memory would come back, but it didn't. As far as "who" removed the pages, even Leonard could have removed some figuring that it was not important to the case (remember, only Teddy sided with Leonard. Everyone else (police) thought there was only one intruder - see black and white sequences).

It might not be as clear as one would think because, correct me if I am wrong, but they would still refer to Leonard's wife as a "victim" (alive or dead).

I would assume that Teddy helped Leonard to discover this part of it since they were both trying to track down the second intruder (Please keep in mind that Teddy DID help Leonard track down the second intruder).

Even to this day, no one knows for sure the extent of the human brain. Even assumptions made in the recent past are being re-evaluated because of new discoveries. If you look up on the internet about Anterograde (sp?) amnesia, they still know nothing about it and the extent of the effects. When I think of this particular situation (Sammy - wife) it reminds me of people who tell stories about something that happened to "them" when it really happened to someone else. If you go through the supplementary items on the disc and the website, there is some additional information about Leonard's time in the hospital. In particular, he keep questioning about his wife. So, imagine Leonard asking the question and the response given to him is that he killed his wife to which he does not want to believe. Maybe through "repetition" of this question, he projected his guilt onto Sammy, and convinced himself that she actually died in the attack.

See my response to number 3. Just think that whenever Teddy was assigned to the case, Teddy had no idea about Leonard's condition (or at least the extent of it). Teddy pursued the case probably the same way any other police officer would have. Through some investigation, possibly off of acquaintances of the first intruder, the probably were able to obtain a name (not necessarily the last name - someone may have offered the first name, but did not know the last name - I don't know).

I bought this movie it was first released amidst all the hype, and while I felt it was a extremely clever, I didn't involve me much.

Almost 3 (4?) years later, revisiting this flick was one of the best movie experiences I have had in a while. I don't know why the heck I didn't enjoy it as much back then, but I am certainly glad I gave it another chance. You may think this is a joke, but I didn't remember most of it so it was pretty close to experiencing it for the first time. Totally worth it.

Just wanted to say that

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H

It always surprises me how often this thread is dug up every 6 months or so.

I really enjoyed it the first time that I saw it, but I was completely confused by the end (kind of like being in Leonard's shoes - I was completely absorbed into his way of thinking). I was so comsumed by the movie that the following day I spent several hours on the official website to gather "clues" or some sort of insight into the movie. It didn't help that much, and I decided to see it again that evening (the following night from the first viewing), and that time everything fell in place and I loved it even more.

It turns out that the part that really threw me was Teddy's confession, and Leonard's subsequent plot to end Teddy's scheme once and for all.

Ahh Memento, what a great film.

I forget how to do it but the sp. ed. of the movie had a way to watch the thing in order. It was good even that way. But unfortunately that disc is so damn hard to figure out some of the features on it i have still not seen.

Jimmy knows about Leonard because Teddy told either him or Natalie (or both) about him in the bar.

Re: *** Official "MEMENTO" Discussion Thread

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/us/05hm.html?_r=1&em

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H

Re: *** Official "MEMENTO" Discussion Thread

Excellent article. After reading that, I can imagine what Leonard's life after the movie would have been like.

Over 7 years later, Memento is still in my Top 10 of the decade and will be there at the end of next year.

Re: *** Official "MEMENTO" Discussion Thread

I just finished my new home theater and this is the first movie I watched (my fiance had never seen it and loved it). That was probably the 7th time I've seen it and I could watch it again tomorrow. If this isn't my favorite movie of all time, it's probably close.

And for you BSG fans, I didn't realize that the actor who plays Leoben in Galactica plays Dodd -- and he gets beat up here! (There's a running joke in BSG about how Leoben always gets the shit kicked out of him).