The Truth about Memento (SPOILERS!)

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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MikeyInHouston

Teddy is actually a cop because HE DOES carry a gun into the isolated building in the scene when Lenny kills Jimmy, and Lenny hits him on the back of the head and then takes the police badge and the gun proving that Teddy is indeed a cop

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AAA

How do you explain the badge and the gun Lenny finds on Teddy in the last scene?

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Joined: February 2011
I think Teddy actually is the 2nd attacker Leonard has been looking for and every time he gets close to identifying his John G., Teddy manages to misdirect him and put Leonard on the scent of someone else, usually by manipulating him over the phone.
The delicious irony of this theory is that Leonard does finally get the real John G., even though he ends up manipulating his own memory to do it.
Very sharp. I've said this since the beginning. I recognize that Leonard's first tattoo could also have been a lie, directed at John Gammell.

And, good catch on Teddy obviously lying about his being a cop. He even thinks about stealing Jimmy's shoes!

This film has some really different theories out there. Some of this thread still makes me laugh. The backbone is still there under all of these layers. The truth remains. Quite the accomplishment by the Nolan brothers.

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Joined: January 2019
After 3/4 years. i have watched this movie again today, & I have some question that noone asked before i think, In the last scene of the movie(B&W), when lenny heard the sound of a car coming. We get some 3/4 flash moments of his wife in color same as lenny was acting at that time. Why was that scene there?? I didn't get this.. I don't think these flash doesn't have any meaning. there is something.. There is also another question arise, like how the hell lenny remember burt's name in the first time when he find out that he is not in 21 anymore & is shifted to 304.. in the 26:13 min of the movie, lenny says "you don't have to be that honest, Burt"..

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Erwin Fortuin wrote:
September 18th, 2010, 10:30 pm
Dear AAA,

I'm sorry, but you're completely missing the point. Please see my post 'The true chronological story of Memento' for the true chronological story of Memento. I haven't written the whole story down in words, but I've summarized it in a single frame.

But here here some spoilers:
- Teddy plays three roles:
1. Corrupt cop (he leads Lenny)
2. A victim of Teddy 1 who takes over (he cooperates with Lenny)
3. A victim of Teddy 2 who takes over (Lenny leads him)
- Lenny is sent to a mental hospital three times
1. First time after Catherine (his first wife) takes an OD of the stash she took from a drugdealer Lenny killed for her.
2. Second time after he killed Teddy 3 because he hears him taking a piss in the bathroom
3. Third time after he stangled Natalie (his second wife) in the bathroom under a shower curtain (after having sex).
- Lenny has three rooms in the Discount Inn (which symbolize the three mental hospitals)
- The most important scene of the movie is a single frame in which his five 'friends' are depicted.
- The most interesting scene is not in the movie. It is in the short story by Jonathan Nolan ("The clouds part, the planets get in a neat little line, and everything becomes obvious."). It is the middle part of scene 18 in my frame (the '666' scene). It is when Lenny realizes he's been used al this time (he sees scene 1 to 17 of my frame in one line). The last part of scene 18 is in the movie ("How can I heal if I can't feel time?"). Lenny realizes the only thing that makes him happy is chasing the rapist/murderer of his 'wife'. So he creates his own 'friend'; a foe. He makes up the story of Sammy Jenkis (who was a fraud) as the guy who killed his own wife and now is in a mental hospital. And he (or better said: Christopher Nolan) creates a character who does not exist at all: Dodd. All memories/sounds/feelings of his murders before are in his story so he can justify all these bad memories to himself. He was looking for 'the one that got away'.
- His first John G. is a gay warden from the third mental hospital who rapes him all the time. Lenny can't resist as he is in a straight jacket ("If I could just reach out and touch her side of the bed I could know that it was cold, BUT I CAN'T.")
- In the end he decides to chase a female foe (Jane G.) because some stupid hooker didn't play her part right in his next recreation of a new John G. She doesn't leave as she is supposed to and so she dies. Lenny 'wakes up' over a new body and justifies this new corpse to himself as (from now on) he is chasing a female foe so it's alright he has killed this woman.

If you've studied the movie as I have (for many years) I hope you will understand at least part of my frame. If not, I'm quit happy to answer any questions.
can you give me the link of your document??

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The truth remains.

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