I've asked this question before on another site but no one seemed to be able to answer it. So I'll ask you guys.

If what happened to Sammy actually happened to Leonard, and it was Leonard who gave his wife the insulin overdose, how does he remember giving her the shots?

He couldn't have remembered because it was after his accident. And even if there was a faint chance he remembered the exact moment his wife died, he couldn't have remembered giving her the shots over and over again, because if that was the case, then he would've realized it was fatal and thus not done it.

Brain damage is a funny thing. It doesn't always act the way you expect it to.

Watch the movie again...you need it.

Who can even say that Leonard's wife is dead? Maybe she ran off with another man.
This could be why Leonard pictures her still alive in the end.
Personally, I don't see any link between Sammy's wife and Leonard's.

A bigger question is:"Why does Leonard lie to himself respecting his wife (the objects in the room) and the girl?"

Leonard seems to wake up and thinks his wife just got out of bed if the bed is still warm.
Perhaps his memory actually ends there. He also has the tattoo "She is gone".

We have to assume she is dead, because that's what Christopher Nolan presented to us.

If there's no logical explanation for him remembering the multiple insulin shots, then it pretty much makes the movie pointless to watch.

The story Momento Mori was so clear when he had a photo of her tombstone.
But if he knows she is dead, why the conditioning routine?
Why does he tell Natalie that he just knows that his wife isn't coming back to bed?
His description shows his memory is not quite crystal clear, is it?

He doesn't know she's dead. He has a feeling she's dead since the last thing he remembers is her being attacked.

The conditioning (looking at the "Remember Sammy Jankis" tattoo, for example) is just to confirm his theory and prove that she really is dead.

peter_c wrote:He doesn't know she's dead. He has a feeling she's dead since the last thing he remembers is her being attacked.

The conditioning (looking at the "Remember Sammy Jankis" tattoo, for example) is just to confirm his theory and prove that she really is dead.

You realize you just answered your own question, right?

Peter:

? How does the Sammy Jankis tattoo help Leonard remember his wife is dead?
When he sees it, he seems to focus on the memory loss.
I don't see, how you correlate them since his tattoo does not say.."Jorja is dead" or "Remember Sammy's wife."

@ Tristy

No I didn't. I said he remembers his wife being attacked and he thinks she's dead. That has nothing to do with him remembering the multiple insulin shots he gave her while he had his condition. How does that answer my question?

@ author

Okay, you're right about that one. But we're still ignoring the main topic.

There's still no explanation for him remembering the shots.