"Do I lie to myself to be happy?" - Memento

Memento is a film directed by Christopher Nolan (Director of The Dark Night trilogy and Inception alongside many other great films) in the year 2000 and was based on the short story written by his brother Jonathan Nolan.



Leonard Shelby, a former insurance investigator, suffers from anterograde amnesia, short term memory loss in which he cannot make new memories, after he was injured while trying to stop two men from raping and killing his wife in their home. After he awakes to find one of the intruders, he later confirms his name is John G., got away he vows to find that man and get revenge for his wifes death. This pursuit of revenge and justice is extremely difficult for Leonard who has to use aids such as Polaroids, notes, and extensive tattoos to help him keep track of things because he looses his memory about every fifteen minutes. These tools remind him of where he is, where he is going, and the purpose of his investigation. Leonard interacts mainly with two other interesting characters in the film: Teddy, an unjust cop who pretends to be Leonards friend while gaining money on the side and Natalie, a barmaid, who is seeking her own revenge for the death of her boyfriend.

Now this film leaves a lot to be interpreted at the end and the amount of theories you can think of make this film a masterpiece.

I'd like to share my theory and hear others because Nolan explains that the real answer to the film is all in the movie and not anything you cannot see. Which has confused viewers ever since it's release and there is no answer yet (which is bugging me like hell).

I first thought the film purposely left plot holes to leave the puzzle unsolvable such as the "Never answer the phone" tattoo, but everything is explained very well by other debunkers.

Now after over 10 viewings I feel that Teddy was in fact not a police officer but a snitch manipulating Leonard to get to kill the drug dealer and then forget the situation so he could make off with the money and the car (This is why you notice him several times trying to take the car from Leonard and access the car whilst Leonard is not in it. I feel like I can back this up with the quote that Teddy says that says "Why would I have a gun?" implying that Teddy never has a weapon but if he was an officer, he would do so. He was just set up by Natalie because she knew he was the only other contact that must've known or actually killed Jimmy.

Now Natalie is just currently facing grief and revenge just as Leonard is but in her own way. She was just using his condition to gain what she wanted. We know this because of how Leonard can understand people through body emotions/expressions and what he writes down on his photo of her clarifies this.

People are saying that Dodd is not a real person but I believe it would be too hard to input into the film without it making no sense that he was non-existent.

Now Sammy Jankis, was this man really Leonard, or was he a real faker and did his wife survive the attack but die of the insulin shots? I feel that there is not enough explanation which reveals if he is him or not which makes this so interesting. Yes, for a split second you can see Sammy change into a younger Leonard. This to me says that he was Sammy but in the way that the real Sammy was the insurance claims investigator because how does Leonard learn all his traits (opening the door whilst waiting for the peephole to turn black, carries a gun almost everywhere and is able to fight well enough. Also, how does he manage to get the police file himself if Teddy was in fact not a police officer). This means that Leonard was portraying Sammy as the faker because he was lying to himself to make him not remember what happened. Then this means that his condition is psychological, not physical due to thinking his wife had died when she didn't. This obviously drove her insane and because she had thought she could get him back to his original self, she died in the process and that is how Leonard blocked it. Teddy says that his wife had diabetes and he says "I think I know my own wife", but surely he just blocked out the memory of her having diabetes because that is in fact how she died.

I feel like I can explain about another 100 pages of theories but I Feel like this is
my best interpretation of the film.

Does anyone have any views that they feel strongly about in this movie?