History SelfDemonstrating / Memento

* RayOfHopeEnding: There is ''some'' reason to hope that [[spoiler: the murder of Teddy will be Lenny's last]], though other evidence might point to the opposite conclusion.

* RayOfHopeEnding: There is ''some'' reason to hope that [[spoiler: Teddy's murder will be Lenny's last]], though other evidence might point to the opposite conclusion.

->''"I lie here not knowing... how long I've been alone. So how... how can I heal? How am I supposed to heal if I can't... feel time?"''

->''"Now, where was I?"''

** One of Leonard's tattoos is backwards [[spoiler:and he speculates that it's for when he's found his wife's killer. He is, in fact, correct - the tattoo is readable only when he's looking at the killer, ie; at himself in a mirror.]]

* TwistEnding: [[spoiler:Or "Twist Mid-way", or...something, whatever--anyway: The big WhamShot revealing that the cop Lenny's meeting at the end of the black-and-white sequences is Teddy leads to a big avalanche of [[TheReveal revelations]] that change everything we thought we could take for granted.]]

* RightThroughTheWall: When Dodd makes noises from inside the cupboard, Teddy's first assumption is "amorous neighbors".

* ReverseWhodunnit: The movie plays the hell out of this trope. We see who [[spoiler: (supposedly)]] was the murderer and so does Lenny in the very first scene. However, the film goes in ''reverse'', and ''then'' with him only remembering scenes in several minute intervals, as we see the outcome and learn the clues as he does while already being "spoiled" to the ending, because of it going in reverse. For the first half, the viewer is able to string together the various short bits of color and he is not, involving quite a bit of mental work, but we still know more than he does because we can remember it. [[spoiler: However, at the halfway point, all hell breaks loose and the people we and Lenny learn to trust and not trust every few minutes may not be as they seem, especially Lenny himself.]]

* MetaCasting: The film required a SmugSnake type character for the antagonist, so they hired Creator/JoePantoliano, whose career is virtually nothing but. [[spoiler: Except, of course, that his character is innocent of the crime he's killed for in the film's opening. The role relies heavily on his typecasting to make the audience assume he's the bad guy, when he's the closest thing the protagonist has to a real friend. Virtually anyone but a typecast actor would have given the audience room to doubt.]]
* ManipulativeBitch: [[spoiler: Natalie ends up manipulating Leonard into thinking that Dodd assaulted her and that he needs to get rid of him. Turns out to be justified later on as Natalie has good reason to hate Leonard.]]

** In an early scene, Leonard explains his condition to Burt, who comments that suffering from anterograde amnesia must be bizarre in that someone afflicted with the condition might have an idea of where they want to go next but not remember where they just came from, in essence living their life "backwards". This line of dialogue helps to explain the film's narrative structure to the audience as a means of representing Leonard's mental state.

* TheKillerInMe: [[spoiler: Leonard has frequent short term memory loss, and is trying to find the man who killed his wife. In the end, he accidentally killed his wife through an insulin overdose, and chose to preserve his sanity by rehearsing a story that it all happened to someone else, called Sammy Jankis. So now he chases criminals in revenge for an act he himself committed. [[MindScrew Maybe]]]].

* InsistentTerminology: It's "Leonard", not "Lenny".

* {{Infodump}}: The phone calls in the black & white portion provide lots of {{Exposition}} about Lenny's and Sammy Jankis's case.

** While Lenny is narrating the story of Sammy Jankis, a shot of Sammy sitting in a nursing home [[spoiler: briefly changes to a shot of Lenny in the exact same spot and clothing.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Or shall we call it "backshadowing"?

** One of Leonard's tattoos is backwards [[spoiler:and he speculates that it's for when he's found his wife's killer. He is, in fact, correct - the tattoo is readable only when he's looking at the killer, i.e. at himself in a mirror.]]
** A scene with a prostitute is a touching one, as it shows how Leonard is still devoted to his wife. [[spoiler: It also demonstrates how adept at self-manipulation he is...]]
** Natalie [[spoiler: telling Lenny he won't even remember it if he kills his wife's murderer.]]
* ForegoneConclusion: [[spoiler:"Teddy", AKA "John G"]] gets shot.

* {{Flashback}}: Sammy Jankis's story is told in flashbacks. [[spoiler:Turns out those are FakeMemories]].

* FakeMemories: It turns out that Leonard, unable to make new memories since being attacked, [[spoiler: has not only been intentionally lying to himself in order to give himself fake clues to get revenge on people he's taken a dislike to in the last five minutes... but he's also purposefully remodelled some of the aspects of his life from before his laser guided amnesia struck as a way of dealing with the guilt of killing his wife]].

* ExpoLabel: A variant is used when Leonard has to carry polaroids of everyone with labels like "Don't believe his lies", because he is unable to form any long-term memories.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: At the end of the movie, you discover that Leonard is basically a SerialKiller, even if he doesn't remember any of his previous kills. Which is sad. But it's even sadder when you realize that at the end (which is the beginning of the movie) he killed the only person who had him in check. And because he doesn't remember a thing (assuming he doesn't tell himself he finally "succeeded" in some message), he will continue to seek revenge, killing we don't know how many people in the process. Revenge for nothing, of course, since his wife didn't die in the attack at all, but was accidentally killed by Leonard, in the way he believes Sammy's wife died. Damn.]]

* DestroyTheEvidence: [[spoiler:Leonard destroyed several documents, before the beginning of the film, which indicated that his wife's attacker had already been found and brought to justice. Furthermore, after Teddy shows him the photo he took of Leonard once the deed was done, he burns both it, AND the new photo he just took of the killed "John G", to continue to delude himself into thinking his wife's killer was still at large.]]

* AmnesiaLoop: Implied to have happened several times with Leonard. [[spoiler: Leonard is implied to have killed several people who he thought killed his wife, than destroyed the evidence of "success" after the killings, then was driven to find a killer all over again. If Teddy is to be believed, they killed the person who broke into Leonard's house a long time ago and on top of that, its actually Leonard himself who accidentally killed her, though she's as much to blame. ]]
* AmnesiaDanger: At one point, Leonard assumes he's chasing a man until said man starts shooting at him, at which point he realizes that the man is chasing ''him.'' He escapes, but upon having reached the hotel room of the man, he hides in the bathroom and prepares to ambush his quarry with a wine bottle. However, he forgets why he is there as well and assumes he was about take a shower, leaving him unprepared for when the enemy does arrive.

Leonard Shelby (Creator/GuyPearce) has a problem: during a robbery in which his wife (Jorja Fox) is killed, he suffers a blow to the head. The injury gives him anterograde amnesia -- which means his brain can no longer record new long-term memories. He can remember the last five to fifteen minutes, and he can remember his life from before the injury, but everything in-between eventually...disappears. His life now consists of a hunt for John G -- the person who killed his wife.

* BurnBabyBurn: Lenny disposes of several of his late wife's belongings this way.

-->'''Hotel guy:''' Well, fifteen minutes from now you won't remember it anyway.

* WouldHitAGirl: Lenny, although it took Natalie [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech some]] [[CountryMatters effort]] to get him reach his RageBreakingPoint.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: ''Everyone'' in the film ruthlessly exploits Leonard's condition to some degree or another to further their criminal schemes. [[spoiler:When the film starts, he's already a serial killer and most tragically, he's manipulating ''himself'' into killing the only person who's holding him in check]].
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Because the protagonist can't remember anything for more than a few minutes lots of people are rude to him or openly take advantage knowing he won't remember. [[spoiler: Including himself.]]

* VillainsNeverLie: Teddy tells Leonard that [[spoiler: Leonard killed his own wife with an insulin injection, and now he continues to search for a new murderer time and again in order to have some meaning to his life.]] We don't know [[AmbiguouslyEvil if Teddy is really a villain]], or whether he says the truth or not, but this is the second-to-last scene (or is it the second scene?), so we tend to believe him. Not to mention the whole [[spoiler:self-manipulation twist-ending.]]

* UnwittingPawn: Natalie and Teddy just ''love'' using the protagonist's short-term memory in order to manipulate him and at the end, [[spoiler: or rather, the middle, we learn that he actually manipulated "himself" into shooting Teddy by leaving indications that he was John G.]]
* UnreliableNarrator: The protagonist suffers from anterograde amnesia, so his memory is extremely limited. [[spoiler:The protagonist in fact makes deliberate use of his condition in order to deceive and manipulate ''himself''. It's also revealed that the memories he does have are heavily distorted.]]

* TreacherousAdvisor: [[spoiler:Teddy, a.k.a. John Gammell]]. Complicated because his intentions aren't purely evil. While he's manipulating Lenny for his own purposes, [[spoiler:he also does it to help Lenny function in daily life, and Lenny is also manipulating ''himself'' into killing innocent people just so he has a purpose in life. Teddy is a smug and greedy enabler, while Lenny is a willing serial killer... and tragically doesn't even remember it.]]
* TragicVillain: [[spoiler:Leonard is basically a serial killer, but he'll never realize what he's truly become; he simply cannot remember anything afterwards and knowingly manipulates himself by leaving behind fake clues to kill people.]]

* SpellMyNameWithABlank: Leonard Shelby's much sought after nemesis, John G_____. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that John G doesn't really exist, as Leonard edited the police files that Teddy gave him to make the name so generic that it could apply to thousands of unrelated people.]]

* SerialKiller: [[spoiler:Leonard Shelby. And thanks to his condition, he has ''no idea''.]]
* SelfServingMemory: Lenny's [[spoiler:false memories of Sammy Jankis's condition and his wife's diabetes]] can be regarded as this.

* PosthumousCharacter:
** Leonard's late wife, who exists only in his memories anymore.
** [[spoiler:Teddy, who is killed in the first scene but due to the film's nonlinear story appears in many scenes after that.]]

* TheLostLenore: Leonard's dead wife, whom he couldn't save from being killed in the home invasion that left him with brain damage.
* LivingLieDetector: Leonard learned to do this before his injury as an insurance claims investigator. As such, it is extremely difficult to deceive him in a face to face conversation. [[spoiler: Or so he believes.]]

* IRejectYourReality: [[spoiler: Pretty much Leonard's MO for how he ended up as an oblivious SerialKiller. Instead of accepting and being reminded of how his wife really died, Leonard purposely sets up a never ending revenge quest to alleviate his guilt. This is especially prevalent in the final (technically first) scene where in his fleeting moment of clarity when he realizes everything he's done, Leonard still chooses to exploit his own condition and deliberately put false clues to fuel his empty crusade rather than tattooing the truth onto himself.]]

* HumanNotepad: Leonard uses tattoos as a NoteToSelf to make up for his inability to form new memories. He's almost a TropeCodifier.

* GivenNameReveal: At the end, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Teddy]]'s real name is John Edward Gammell, meaning that he too is a John G, and therefore a candidate for Leonard's hit list.

* FemmeFatale: [[spoiler: Natalie. At first it seems like she's looking out for Leonard both "out of pity" and out of gratitude for helping her out of a DamselInDistress situation. As the movie works back, we find out she's taking advantage of his condition to wipe out her late boyfriend's "business" rival.]]

* EvidenceDungeon:
** The movie features a much more personal version of this in Leonard's tattoos. [[spoiler:Almost all the evidence needed to indict him for multiple murders is tattooed on his body.]]
** Even worse, but seemingly more innocent: "Remember Sammy Jankis." [[spoiler:This is Leonard's way of [[MemoryGambit using his own condition against himself]], to continue perpetuating the lie that is Sammy Jankis as an existing person and that he's not a walking, talking Evidence Dungeon. By putting it on his hand, he ensures he'll look at it every so often.]]

* DreamCrushingHandicap: Leonard has lost his capacity for short-term memory and is repeatedly told by the other characters that his going on a quest to avenge his wife's murder is a fool's errand since, even if he does manage to succeed, he won't remember it anyway and thus won't derive any emotional closure from it. As the ending reveals, [[spoiler: it's even worse than that. He already DID avenge his wife, failed to receive the closure he wanted but kept on hunting anyway until he mistakenly killed someone completely unrelated to his wife's murder. The film ends with him starting his investigation all over again, with the strong implication that he'll kill at least one more person before he's finished.]]

* DisabilitySuperpower: The amnesiac Leonard is described by another character as the perfect assassin - since he can't remember ever having killed anyone, he doesn't act like his targets expect an assassin to act and feels no guilt afterwards. [[spoiler:His partner keeps setting him up to kill people and they never see him coming.]]
* DirtyCop: Teddy claims to be an undercover cop, but he's not above facilitating vigilante justice by helping Leonard find John G (who killed Leonard's wife), and uses Lenny to murder people for profit.

* CriminalAmnesiac: Deconstructed. Several people try to use Leonard Shelby's anterograde amnesia by setting their enemies up to look like John G, the man whom Leonard is planning to kill for raping and murdering his late wife. [[spoiler:At the end it's revealed that Leonard has been playing himself as well by killing fake John Gs to give himself purpose in life.]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: Natalie seems like a nice girl at first, but then is revealed to have taken advantage of Leonard. She continuously insulted him and called his wife a whore, then manipulated him into thinking that he needed to get rid of Dodd (while rubbing it in his face). Turns out to be subverted later on when it's revealed that he actually killed her boyfriend, which she knew all along.]]

* AmnesiacLiar: Leonard relies on his system of notes and photos, which Teddy warns him could be unreliable. [[spoiler:Turns out Teddy was right, and among other things, Leonard tricks himself into killing Teddy even though he's not the one Leonard is looking for.]]

* AmbiguouslyEvil: While Teddy is introduced as a villain, it gradually becomes clear that he is probably Leonard's only real friend, who is nevertheless manipulating him for his own ends. At the end he claims that [[spoiler:he helped Lenny get revenge on the original John G and has been trying to help Leonard cope with his amnesia.]] Even then we don't find out whether he's telling the truth or not, leaving Teddy's true motives ambiguous.

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: About two days, if you don't count the flashbacks to Sammy's story.

* DrosteImage: While not in the film itself, there's the [[http://thecineclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Memento.jpg box art]] for the film.

* {{Foreshadowing}}:

* AbsenceOfEvidence: [[spoiler:Leonard destroyed several documents, before the beginning of the film, which indicated that his wife's attacker had already been found and brought to justice. Furthermore, after Teddy shows him the photo he took of Leonard once the deed was done, he burns both it, AND the new photo he just took of the killed "John G", to continue to delude himself into thinking his wife's killer was still at large.]]

* HumanNotepad: Leonard uses tattoos as a NoteToSelf to make up for his inability to form new memories.

* PlatonicProstitution: At one point Leonard hires a prostitute, but he does not have sex with her. The point is to wake up after his memory loss and think that he had, in an effort to move on from her death. Or to reenact a bedroom memory he had of her to jar more facts loose.

* TwoLinesDifferentTimes: The main story sees Leonard interacting with people around town, while the secondary story takes place at a different time and consists of shorter black and white scenes of him in his room talking about his condition. [[spoiler:The two stories converge at the end, making the movie one story told from both beginning and end.]]

* MeanwhileInTheFuture: The film alternates between two plot streams, one told in normal chronological order, [[BackToFront the other in reverse]] to highlight the character's memory disorder. The jumps back and forth between plots enhance the disorientation caused by the reverse-order plot.

* TwistEnding: Or "Twist Mid-way", or...something, whatever--anyway: The big WhamShot revealing that the cop Lenny's meeting at the end of the black-and-white sequences is [[spoiler: Teddy]] leads to a big avalanche of [[TheReveal revelations]] that change everything we thought we could take for granted.

%% WhatDidIDoLastNight
* UnwittingPawn:Natalie and Teddy just love using the protagonist's short-term memory in order to manipulate him and at the end, [[spoiler: or rather, the middle, we learn that he actually manipulated "himself" into shooting Teddy by leaving indications that he was John G]].
%% UnreliableNarrator
%% TheUsualSuspectsEnding
%% PlatonicProstitution
%% OntologicalMystery
* NoteToSelf / MemoryGambit: Pretty much Leonard's only way of functioning from day to day.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Averted. In fact, one of the few films that treats amnesia anywhere near realistically.
* ItsAllJunk: Lenny tosses several of his wife's belongings into a fire.
* FreezeFrameBonus: [[spoiler: While Lenny is narrating the story of Sammy Jankis, a shot of Sammy sitting in a nursing home briefly changes to a shot of Lenny in the exact same spot and clothing.]]
* ForegoneConclusion: [[spoiler: "Teddy", AKA "John G" gets shot.]]
%% FilmNoir
* EasterEgg: The DVD is full of them, one that even lets you watch the film in chronological order.
* DynamicEntry: Subverted in one of the only funny moments in the movie.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: At the end of the movie, you discover that Leonard is basically a Serial Killer, even if he doesn't remember any of his previous kills. Which is sad. But it's even sadder when you realize that at the end (which is the beginning of the movie) he killed the only person who had him in check. And because he doesn't remember a thing, he will continue to seek revenge, killing we don't know how many people in the process. Revenge for nothing, of course, since his wife didn't die in the attack at all, but was accidentally killed by Leonard, in the way he believes Sammy's wife died.]] Damn.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: One thread of the movie is monochrome and the other is in color. The trope is played with very well when the plot threads' meeting point coincides with a developing Polaroid photo.
* CountryMatters: That's how Natalie finally gets Leonard to snap and punch her.

%% TheBigBoard
* BestServedCold: Lenny's only motivation is to kill the man who murdered his wife. [[spoiler: Assuming she was even murdered by the man, and not killed by Leonard giving her too many insulin injections.]]
* BackToFront: The majority of the film is shown in reverse order. These scenes alternate with shorter scenes arranged chronologically. The two plot threads meet at the end of the film (which is the chronological middle of the story).
* AllThereInTheManual: Much of the backstory is only explained through the movie's promotional website, including [[spoiler: Leonard sending himself messages to convince himself that there was a second burglar who murdered his wife, prompting his eventual escape from the institution he was in.]]
* AbsenceOfEvidence: [[spoiler: Leonard destroyed several documents, before the beginning of the film, which indicated that his wife's attacker had already been found and brought to justice. Furthermore, after Teddy shows him the photo he took of Leonard once the deed was done, he burns both it, AND the new photo he just took of the killed "John G.", to continue to delude himself into thinking his wife's killer was still at large.]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/memento_poster_9515.jpg]]



!!This film provides examples of:

The scenes in the movie are shown in backwards chronological order (alternating with normal chronological scenes of Lenny in the hotel room, shown in black-and-white), to create a mood matching Leonard's condition.

To find John G, and to simply function from day to day, Lenny employs a variety of reminders and notes to himself, like Polaroids and tattoos. Of course, this isn't a perfect world, and in the hunt for John G, he comes across some who would take advantage of his condition...

Lenny has a problem. During a robbery in which his wife is killed, he suffers a blow to the head which gives him anterograde amnesia: His brain is unable to record new memories. He can remember the last five to fifteen minutes, and he can remember his life from before the injury, but everything in between is gone. Now his only goal is to track down his wife's killer.

Memento is a 2000 PsychologicalThriller film written and directed by Creator/ChristopherNolan, considered by many fans to be one of his masterpieces.


-> ''"Now, where was I?"''

* WhatDidIDoLastNight

* UnreliableNarrator
* TheUsualSuspectsEnding
* PlatonicProstitution
* OntologicalMystery

* FilmNoir

* TheBigBoard

-> ''"Now, where was I?"''

Memento is a 2000 PsychologicalThriller film written and directed by ChristopherNolan, considered by many fans to be one of his masterpieces.

-> ''"Now, where was I?"''