Plot-hole or Misunderstanding?

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.
Post Reply
Posts: 90
Joined: July 2010
deleted
Last edited by Johnson_808 on October 18th, 2015, 8:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Posts: 13622
Joined: June 2009
Location: Florida
I have no idea what you're trying to get at but I'll try to explain? :lol:

Memory is unreliable. He thought that John G raped and murdered his wife, but he only raped her. I think one of the themes of Memento is that a person can believe what they want to believe, and that's what Lenny did.

Posts: 90
Joined: July 2010
deleted
Last edited by Johnson_808 on October 18th, 2015, 8:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Posts: 74
Joined: June 2010
SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY



Okay: The "I can't make new memories" thing is misdirection. He can make new memories, which is why he lies to himself -- doctoring his files, setting up Teddy, etc. He has a tattoo that says "Learn through repetition" but another part of the movie's misdirection is using the (false) case of Sammy Jenkis to suggest that someone with this condition cannot make new memories.

Let's look at just some of the new memories he has created:

That he has the retrograde amnesia condition
That his wife was murdered
That you have to burn Polaroids to destroy them
That, with this condition, you get by by faking recognition of others
That "you have to have a system"


Now, he can falsify "history" by repeatedly lying to himself, thus creating false new memories. One is that his wife was raped and murdered; he's removed any eveidence that he gave her the actual overdose (and thus landed in the mental institution.) One is that Sammy Jenkis, who was an unmarried con man he met in his insurance gig, was married and developed retrograde amnesia and subsequently gave his wife the overdose and landed in the hospital. We don't even know what Sammy's con was, exactly; he could be someone Leonard latched onto teh same way he latches on to Teddy at the end of the movie. Teddy is walking evidence; Leonard removes any evidence which distubs him so that he can go on living.

Does that help?

Posts: 90
Joined: July 2010
deleted
Last edited by Johnson_808 on October 18th, 2015, 8:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Posts: 74
Joined: June 2010
:thumbup:

The movie is pretty dense (in a good way), but when you unpack it, I think you find most of the answers are right in there, and it's totally solid.

Posts: 41
Joined: August 2010
Leonards wife killed herself with an overdosis drugs after the CAR accident (see my post 'The true chronologicla story of Memento')

Posts: 1
Joined: December 2014
At first he uses the blonde prostitute after he has killed a John G. to revive his wrath, to recreate a new John G. so he can set out on a new quest. But the last prostitute he calls he actually has sex with (she doesn't leave as she is supposed to).He (again) accidently kills her. Unable to explain to himself the corpse of a woman (instead of a man, as he has grown accustomed to) he decides to recreate a whole new John G.: a Jane G. (in the movie he re-tattoos the 'drug dealer'-tattoo, but actually he re-tatoos his John G. tattoo which has faded in time. The John can easily be transformed into a Jane). Testking 200-101 exam He can now explain the corpse of a woman (his new foe) and sets out on another quest (also the end of the movie).

User avatar
Posts: 8266
Joined: October 2012
Location: Gran Pulse
Huh? There were two prostitutes? I swear there was only one prostitute.

Posts: 1
Joined: May 2015
allmond guy wrote:
Now, he can falsify "history" by repeatedly lying to himself, thus creating false new memories. One is that his wife was raped and murdered; he's removed any eveidence that he gave her the actual overdose (and thus landed in the mental institution.) One is that Sammy Jenkis, who was an unmarried con man he met in his insurance gig, was married and developed retrograde amnesia and subsequently gave his wife the overdose and landed in the hospital. We don't even know what Sammy's con was, exactly; he could be someone Leonard latched onto teh same way he latches on to Teddy at the end of the movie. Teddy is walking evidence; Leonard removes any evidence which distubs him so that he can go on living.
@allmond guy Why does he create a very detailed false memory of Sammy giving his wife an overdose? Seeing as Leonard already had his memory loss condition at the point where he himself gives his wife an overdose.

Post Reply