the way i understood memento

The famous 2000 film that put Christopher Nolan on the map tells the story of a man on the hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.
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Sammy jenkis is real

Leonard's wife got raped and murdered by a John G.

Leonard has already killed multiple John G's.

Teddy hangs around because he is scared for his life and knows eventually Leonard will chose him. The only way to avoid being killed is to be around him and control his path. Also, Teddy takes advantage of Lenny's disability so that he can make money for himself.

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If Teddy is scared for his life and knows eventually Leonard will chose him why doesn't he just move away?

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Samuel R. Jankis wrote:If Teddy is scared for his life and knows eventually Leonard will chose him why doesn't he just move away?

you just answered your own question

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I believed similarly to what you did for quite some time, but then I came to believe that much of what Teddy said at the end is actually true. But I also realized that to determine what Leonard does at the end we don't really need to know whether it is true or not, we just need to determine if Leonard believes it to be true or not. And based on what Leonard says in the car it seems to me that he believes that he did actually kill John G in the past, but that's where he thinks the truth ends. He doesn't believe that he creates a puzzle he can't solve and he doesn't believe that his wife wasn't murdered. He seems to believe that Teddy has been using him and getting him to kill the wrong people. So like he says "Do I lie to myself to be happy? In your guess, Teddy, I will." He believes that Teddy pushes him to kill other people. He doesn't like being used as a weapon and thus decides that the only way to stop that is to kill the one using him as a weapon.

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Well, okay.

I think that Leonard is really Sammy, there are several points pointing towards this, one is the fact that Leonard has been on a mental Institute, and second is the fact that Leonard is the one sitting in the exact same chair as Sammy (quoted below). Besides that there are several points regarding leonard and his wife pointing towards this. Which I can't really remember.
Jonas Agersø wrote:In the scene where you see Sammy ending up in the clinic, if you watch very closely you can see a hint to the eventual revelation at the 'end' of the movie. Near the end of the scene, someone walks past Sammy between him and the camera. As the person passes, just before the end of the scene, there is a very brief glimpse, in just two frames of film, of Leonard sitting in the chair in place of Sammy. Additional special features in the DVD version reveal that Leonard was placed in psychiatric care and kept journals to remind himself of information to remember. In one of his journals, he encouraged himself to "escape" from the institution.

Pause it at 0.30

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Jonas Agersø wrote:Well, okay.

I think that Leonard is really Sammy, there are several points pointing towards this, one is the fact that Leonard has been on a mental Institute, and second is the fact that Leonard is the one sitting in the exact same chair as Sammy (quoted below). Besides that there are several points regarding leonard and his wife pointing towards this. Which I can't really remember.
Jonas Agersø wrote:In the scene where you see Sammy ending up in the clinic, if you watch very closely you can see a hint to the eventual revelation at the 'end' of the movie. Near the end of the scene, someone walks past Sammy between him and the camera. As the person passes, just before the end of the scene, there is a very brief glimpse, in just two frames of film, of Leonard sitting in the chair in place of Sammy. Additional special features in the DVD version reveal that Leonard was placed in psychiatric care and kept journals to remind himself of information to remember. In one of his journals, he encouraged himself to "escape" from the institution.

Pause it at 0.30

i think its just an indication of Leonard knowing what it feels like to be in Sammy's shoes...where as before he didnt understand how he could seem like he recognized the person.

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John G didn't murder Leonard's wife. Leonard gave her too much insulin.

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I think you could also make the case that
Jenkis was real and Leonard sort of fused their stories together. I know Leonard can create new memories despite his insistence otherwise, but that's an awful, awful lot of backstory to have come up with. Though the idea of having two people with such a rare condition cross paths at anyplace other than an institution (e.g. an insurance office) seems awfully improbable. Not sure if there's a definitive answer on this one.

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