Sammy

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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Johnathon Nolan admits in an interview that there was more to the Sammy Jankis story, but that Chris would kill him if he would leak any of the information deleted from some of the original scripts. I think it could be as following, based on what we actually see.
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Sammy Jankis was in an auto accident.
Sammy faked his condition.
Sammy deliberately chooses the same items and reactions. However, our selections and words are always a bit more random (some days I choose chocolate, some rum raisin, sometimes coffee ice cream. I don't always say 'Yum' or 'Ah good' even though I feel the same way when I sit down with an ice cream or my favorite cup of hot coffee.) Sammy is trying to appear as if he has no memory. (I alternate between calling someone a jerk and an idiot, never the exact same phrase)
Sammy is shown watching TV. Leonard then describes more of himself....as we see it is Leonard who can not watch at any length. He can only focus his attention on the commercials.
Sammy never takes notes. He never writes down who called on the phone, even with prodding. Leonard says that Sammy got lost because he took too many notes. However, it is Leonard that we see with a file full of papers that is too much for him to sort out (especially at one point in his room)

I think Nolan intended these scenes to sort of see, do we the audience follow what we see or do we focus more on what Leonard is saying? Can Leonard deliberately alter the story? Does Leonard actually remember the entire last night of his memory? The incident with the girl in the hotel room seems to indicate that Leonard only remembers up until that point (his wife getting out of bed and closing the bathroom door). Usually, people in an accident never remember the actual accident. They only remember getting in the car.)

I know some people say that Sammy is exactly who 'Teddy' says he is. But Nolan's comments indicate otherwise.

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I really think Sammy is Leonard. I've seen the movie a lot but I'm not 100% sure with my hypothesis. I think he makes up in his mind the story of his wife getting raped and murdered because of the guilt of killing her with the insulin; hence making new memory's to kill the pain of whats reality. I believe Leonard was in a car accident and that's how he developed his condition. Maybe Sammy was the claims agent that visited Leonard and is wife when the bills started piling up. How Teddy factors into my hypothesis I'm still trying to figure out. Maybe he met Leonard after the accident and invented a way to exploit his handicap by making up a fake police report ect, ect.

I may be way off so if someone wants to try and explain this flick their way then feel free.

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No, they can not be the same person.

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I think everything Leonard says happened to Sammy, but he mixes up the part about his wife as if his body's in a "denial mode" where it won't accept it. I think the rape/attack DID happen, and Leonard DID get knocked unconscious, but his wife survived. Pretty much what Teddy says in the end.
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Bacon wrote:I think everything Leonard says happened to Sammy, but he mixes up the part about his wife as if his body's in a "denial mode" where it won't accept it. I think the rape/attack DID happen, and Leonard DID get knocked unconscious, but his wife survived. Pretty much what Teddy says in the end.

If he was confronted with evidence that he did kill her, he may have gotten the first tattoo.
He may have put 'John G.' in anger at Gammell for doing this, telling him the truth over a year ago.
Then, the tattoo would daily reinforce, by repetition, that his wife was murdered by someone unknown.

If Leonard did kill her, it would be impossible for Leonard to 'remember it' in order to lie spontaneously and say it was Sammy's wife. (he doesn't have a tattoo that says Sammy killed his wife.)
Leonard doesn't seem to remember the attack (although he tells a story) as evidenced by his recreation of the bathroom scene with the call girl. (sometimes he seems to say what other people want to hear.)

More and more, I tend to think Sammy may have been a faker.
Life is a lot of random choices.
Nobody would select the pyramid first every time, nor have the exact identical reaction.
One would experience the same level of anger, but never express it exactly the same.

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Maybe tattoos hemmel improve your anger at what he told the truth, the more ago.Then more each day be his wife killed by strangers.
Last edited by francescocossiga on December 30th, 2015, 2:56 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Did anyone notice that the actor who played Sammy Jenkis (Stephen Toblowsky) also played an insurance agent in Groundhog Day? It's a somewhat similar movie to Memento. Wonder if Nolan did that on purpose.

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