Memento Analyzed | Classic Explained Episode 15
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- Thank you for voting! Memento Analyzed / Analysis / Explained is Episode 15 in the Classic Explained Series. I love this movie and I'm really glad it was so highly voted, so here is my analysis and explanation of the movie and the ending. Hope you like it! Memento starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano, directed by Christopher Nolan, is a 2000 psychological thriller movie. Tune into this Lucas Blue Explained to find out the meaning of Memento. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I would love to discuss!
This is a spoiler-filled Memento Explained video by Lucas Blue.
Let me know your thoughts about Memento or any of your favorite psychological thriller films in the comments below. I love hearing the opinions!
Outro Song: Let Go
Listen here: smarturl.it/son...
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Guy Pearce - Carrie-Anne Moss - Joe Pantoliano
Hope you enjoy! What were your thoughts and ideas around Memento? I would love to discuss!!
yes its true that Leonard is on the loop, but i think the killing will stop now that he had killed Teddy because every time the reset occurs Leonard will be looking for the owner of the plate number that had tattooed on his thigh which was Teddy or for him his John G, but since he already killed him, he can never find him anymore. just like what the story is trying to tell, people will always take advantage of his handicap just like what some of the characters did to him. i think the story of Sammy the way he remembers is true because his memory before the incident is still intact on him, but Teddy already had a program to manipulate Leonard for his financial interests. Natalie used Leonard to avenge her boyfriend Jimmy because she thought that it was Teddy who killed Jimmy and to get rid of Dodd as well. one thing is unclear to me though. i don't think it was just a two random junkies that assaulted and raped his wife. they were sent by someone connected to Sammy for revenge. Sammy needed that cash from Leonard's company whether his illness is physical or mental. what good is his physical if he is mentally ill? the same he can never find a job to support himself and his wife. so one mistake of Leonard against Sammy ruined so many lives.
My all time favourite movie. I rarely watch movies more than once, even ones that i love, but ive watched memento at least a million times now. Also the movie that made me love and appreciate great movies, got me into movies💯
Yeah I could totally see how this would get someone into movies, the premise is so fascinating and so well thought through. I'm so glad to hear you love it, thank you so much for watching!!
Same here!
Fun fact the directors commentary for this movie on dvd splits off near the end into 4 tracks one playing in reverse one saying teddy is telling the truth one saying teddy is lying and one not saying either
To accept that this video (along with part 1) answers all the questions I have about memento would end my extensive search for the truth of memento. Without this longing for the truth, I would no longer be whole and ultimately lack purpose. Therefore, I must distort my memory to forget I ever watched this video and restore my life’s motivation… We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are.
Great analysis! Memento is like sort of a cursed circle. The Allegory of the Cave, which Leonard returns to again and again, and again. Good job, dude!
Thank you so much, so glad you enjoyed it! And yeah it’s crazy cus he’s just agreeing with himself to circle through this loop, but I understand Leonard completely. Thank you for watching!!
I think even when it’s chronological it’s still a somewhat complex mystery.
I watched Memento for the first time earlier this year, and I was blown away! I love your analysis of the movie 💯 I am such a huge fan of Christopher Nolan's work. One of my favorite filmmakers!
Yeah Nolan is one of my favorites as well, I plan to cover more Nolan in the near-future, and I love Memento so much. It may seem like a gimmick at first glance, but when you see it, it's clearly a thoughtful exploration of purpose, grief, and the passage of time. I'm so glad you enjoyed! Thank you so much!!
Nolan used the black and white (fact) vs color (perspective) technique in Oppenheimer
Yeah it was pretty similar, Strauss’s perspective was the black and white, while Oppenheimer’s perspective was the color
How do I watch this it in a linear structure?
I do feel like that in the end, Leonard will end up caught and turned in to the psych ward, *because the only reason he's on the loose killing John G.s is because a literal cop is covering his tracks.* At the very beginning of the movie, he took a picture of Teddy (the cop's) dead body. I like to believe he captioned it saying 'I've killed him'. He had no reason not to, since he'd forgotten the truth *_and also forgotten the fact that he wanted to suppress it out of guilt._*
Of course, if we want to believe he doesn't keep the picture he took of Teddie's dead body, who's to say. That isn't in the movie. But I think he'll keep it.
In the end, with or without functioning memories, Leonard didn't have the human nature of a killer. I don't think he's so depraved, that he would rather continue killing people instead of living a life without purpose. When he made the cop his next target and the 'wife killer' he wasn't lying to himself just to continue living a narrative of righteous revenge, _he made the cop his next target and the 'wife killer' because he wanted to live continue living a narrative of righteous revenge _*_one last time._*
Sammy was some conman who was caught, because it *should have been possible for him to be conditioned to not touch electified objects.* But when Leonard was injured and developed anterograde amnesia, it was the real deal. This was why *Leonard's wife kept testing him- but the conditioning didn't work even though it was supposed to, since his brain damage was real.*
But his wife, unable to let him go, kept trying the conditioning tests that were supposed to work... and it ultimately killed her.
This was where, despite his memory being in fragments, was consumed with guilt. *_Rather than admit to himself that the conditioning failed even though it should've worked, and accept he overdosed his wife, he planted fake memories into himself, _* such as:
- His wife had died after the rape attempt (to hide the fact that he killed her)
- The police didn't believe there was was a second person called John G. at the scene (untrue, Gammel the cop believed him and even helped him find and kill him)
- Sammy wasn't a conman, and had a wife who died tragically after testing him (to hide the fact that Sammy was his cover, his excuse, and to push the reality of his wife's death onto a stranger)
Honestly, I don't think anyone who died was completely unaware that they were playing with fire. The rapists deserved everything they had coming. Fuck them.
- The rapist who actually did that to Leonard's wife, and fucked up Leonard's mind and life? Wish he'd died more painfully.
- The original John G. also had it coming for aiding rape and assaulting Leonard. Rot in hell.
- Leonard's wife should have known that escalating the tests and forcing Leonard to magically get rid of his brain damage wasn't very feasible. If the unreliable memories are to be trusted, she was starving him and screaming at him to snap out of it. She knew her life was at risk when she tried the insulin shots. I'd think of it as an aided suicide, where she used her own husband to end her life, ignoring the fact that her death would devastate a man who was already suffering from brain damage. She was the one light in his life... but she decided she'd rather die than live with the mentally crippled version of him. It's painful to accept, but they just weren't meant to grow old together.
- the Jimmy drug dealer guy knew that Leonard was essentially a manipulated hitman. He knew he'd be in danger. I do think his death was a little unfortunate. It's hard to wish death on someone even if they deal drugs and extort people, because he was precious to others (like Natalie).
- Gammel the cop deserved to die. He did help Leonard, but he was essentially the reason Leonard remained trapped in a neverending cycle of revenge. He knew the truth, he had evidence, he could have ended it, but it's very likely that he's the reason Leonard never had a tattoo of 'I've taken revenge' tatooed on his chest. He used Leonard like a hired gun without the money, and paid for it with his life.
This sounds cheesy, but I think the movie shows that while perception and reality itself is at the mercy of memories and what we desperately want to believe in order to believe, there's something about human emotions that even memories can't change.
The people in this movie are deeply flawed, but choose to show compassion for no real reason or profit- simply because they had the luxury of doing so. In the same way, Leonard is just someone who really, really loved his wife. The brain damage had made him exactly like Sammy, but killing his own wife was the reason he changed so drastically from a patient who was all but a vegetable babied by his wife, to someone ruthlessly organized and driven - just to forget.
Leonard just wanted to kill Teddy, and end the cycle of being meaninglessly exploited while he meaninglessly sought revenge. Would he try to forget again if he was told the whole truth again? Yes, probably. But I don't think he would let himself chase random people. Most likely, he'd construct a puzzle much harder to solve, so he was left scrambling after the breadcrumbs he left for himself for the rest of his life.
Because ultimately, it isn't the guilt of killing his wife that's the worst thing in his mind. It's the fact that conditioning is supposed to be real, it was _supposed_ to help him realize he was overdosing her and stop, yet he never realized it until it was too late, and failed a test of 'love'.
I just can’t get how Lenny remembered he overdosed his wife and didn’t fail to forget it an hour after. So basically, he remembered it for a while, then he planted other fake memories in its place? Even if he did overdose his wife, how did he managed to remember and feel guilty about it?
I thought for a while there wasn’t a Sammy and he had made that story up, but that doesn’t conclude either. I still can’t get a way around this.
oh man, you're going in circles just as Leonard was in the movie
Jokes aside, I think you've got some solid points here. Not sure if I agree with them all
Amazing video and analysis, brother. The only question I have is at 10:28 when you mention the “actual John G.”. I thought a “real John G.” never existed because he was the one who killed his wife. Unless there was a real John G. that did r word his wife but didn’t kill her if that’s what you were referencing. Any clarification is appreciated!
Yeah I wasn’t clear enough there haha but yes, I think it was the John G who “R” worded his wife, and didn’t kill her. That’s my theory. And thank you so much my friend, I’m so happy you enjoyed this one!!
Yes I think it's the John G who assaulted his wife and then also caused him to have the memory condition which sort of led to his wife's death. So while John G may not have directly killed his wife, he almost did... Or at least his actions directly contributed to the circumstances that led to Leonard's wife's death. And I also can't imagine that his wife recovered fully, mentally, from such a gruesome thing to happen to her, and then to have her husband basically dead, in a sense at least... I heard another theory that his wife had him inject her with the insulin over and over as more of a suicide by proxy, as opposed to an accident or testing his memory or whatever. Which also makes sense.
Was it ever revealed why Leonard thought the attackers name was John G?
Teddy most likely gave him all the information he has as Teddy was the phone guy and the officer assigned to his case.
Teddy probably lazily said John G cause that’s his name, never thinking Leonard would have a reason to know his name
I think Lenny DID get the tattoo, though, because it says "Ive done it." on his chest with him lying with his wife.
He must have removed it so he could kill murder more people.
What happemed was, Teddy helped Lenny find the second man in the bathroom. Then, after that, after he killed the real John G, Lenny's wife more or less killed herself by giving Lenny his "final test". Then Lenny went to the institution.. And then, he left the institution somehow and Teddy helped him start killing again.
"I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand -
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep - while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?"( Edgar Allan Poe).
Great analysis, Lucas👏 ! I love, love this movie! I agree it is about closure, grief, death. Also, the title is not innocently chosen, I think : we are memories, without we are just like those little mementos given at funerals. The man Léonard was is dead. Memento mori
I love this poem! It’s way beyond our control that so much will slip away from us. I love the movie too, and yes I should’ve talked about the title. I’m so glad you brought it up and offered your insights, I totally agree! Thank you for watching!!
He's pretending to himself that he has to ignore the truth in the hope that he will one day convince himself that he actually believes it.Repetition
Great analysis of this masterpiece of a movie.
Thank you so much! It truly is a masterpiece, I love it more the more I think about it!!
@@lucasblue20 I can see you love this film from both parts of your in depth analysis of this film !
Superb video. Really terrific! It's one of my all-time faves (might be my favourite movie, period). I like to view it as an metaphor for the human experience; we're thrust into this chaotic, random, completely meaningless world and the only way we can survive is to create narratives and stories about our lives in order to give them some sense of meaning and purpose (illusory as this is), just as Leonard has to create fictions in order to keep going and avoid realising the horrifying and depressing reality of his existence.
That’s a fantastic way of looking at it! I am also a believer in the idea that people have to create their own meaning of life, or else it’s totally about nothing haha and this movie totally encapsulates that. We as people almost shouldn’t have the ultimate answers to life or else it will ruin us. That’s such a loaded thought, but I totally get where you’re coming from and I agree. I’m glad you pointed that out! Thank you for watching!!
Nice analysis of a great movie! One thing I think you didn't mention: the hints that Leonard used Sammy's story to tell about parts of himself that he regrets. For example, he described Sammy as being disorganized, with zillions of scattered notes, and no system, while Leonard said he had a simple system of routines for figuring things out. Soon after we hear Leonard say that, we see earlier Leonard in black & white with a folder crammed full of notes with lots of scribbles...
christophar Nolan
explained that the colour scenes are backword and b&w are chronological jumping the timeline with Lenny mixing up Sammy Jankis with himself
Thank you for your masterful analysis. I've learned a lot. I really like to hear your analysis of "A Death in Venice" by Luchino Visconti 1971. many considered it a masterpiece. Look forward to it !
I am with you on that analysis, except for one point. The photo where he points to his chest. His hand is bloody and he is smiling, at peace. He has the tattoos already and points to the place where the final tattoo would be. This one is so obvious to interpret for him, he already killed John G. The fact that he has NO memory of this makes this much more impactful. Look how happy, how at peace I was.....yet I don't remember.
The one thing that I still do not get completely is if Leonard his wife get murdered or not. Was there a real John G that murdered his wife or did she survive and did Leonard kill her with the diabetes medicine? Could you please give me some clarification on this?
It was challenging to understand the plot since it's presented in reverse, but here's my understanding of it:
Leonard kills the drug dealer Jimmy, believing he's the John G. who killed his wife. Immediately afterward, in an act of breathtaking cynicism, Teddy-aka-John Gammel tells Leonard how he's been manipulating him into killing drug dealers for their money. He even taunts Leonard by reminding him that he will soon forget everything Teddy has confessed. Leonard is devastated but in a flash of insight he sees that he can escape the cycle by leaving himself clues that will make him believe that Teddy is the John G. who killed his wife. He writes on Teddy's photo not to believe anything he tells Leonard, and writes Teddy's license plate number on a note. He subsequently gives the note to Natalie, who says she has a friend who can find out who is the owner of the license plate. It's John Gammel, and Leonard concludes that Teddy is the John G. who raped and killed his wife. He kills Teddy, which is the opening scene of the film since the story is presented in reverse.
I think there's an implication that Leonard ends up like his imagined version of Sammie, frozen in time with no purpose to his life.
but if he killed his wife how did he lost his mind ? He did not crash his head alone right ?
The part most people don't understand about this movie, and one that changes things completely from the perspective of this video, is that Leonard is a serial killer.
i still think there is some room for ambiguity as to whether leonard really is “sammy jankis”, mostly because teddy has shown to be untrustworthy to the viewer. but it is also true that he doesn’t have to withhold information in that moment, as leonard will just forget. still, i a, skeptical there ever was a “real” john g., so that would be something teddy lied about in that moment, if indeed there was only one attacker. but that’s fairly ambiguous too.
another thing i noticed is that tattoo that says “photograph car, friend, etc.”, the bottommost word is “foe” inside what looks to be an arrow pointing up at his face. as if to say “you are your own worst enemy”.
one thing i don’t understand though, is the whole thing with natalie. she recognizes right away that leonard is driving jimmy’s car and wearing his clothes, and has absolute proof of it too since he had that note from her in his pocket (she even mutters under her breath, “*your* pocket...?”). in fact the whole subplot with dodd seems at first to be her attempt to get leonard killed (“i told him about your car”, a comment which leonard doesn’t understand), but at the same time it does seem to be halfway true that she wanted leonard to take care of dodd, because after he does so, he stays over, and she later indicates that she is helping him “because you helped me”, she kisses him, etc. anyway, hope that makes sense. good analysis and great film.
I think you’re point as to the fact that teddy is untrustworthy makes this movie even more brilliant, it gives us another layer in the puzzle to try and solve even after knowing the twist we can never be sure as to whether or not it’s the truth just like Leonard, the movie itself shows us people who are close to him like Natalie use him and manipulate him just like teddy did and yet the fact that none of it is clearly answered is because Nolan left it purposely ambiguous so that us the audience can never truly believe the truth, it’s like teddy said “you don’t want the truth you make your own truth” and I think Nolan was trying to emulate that to the audience.
Fantastic
Your analysis is better than the film itself
Why did Lenny put Jimmy's suit on?
Solid analysis thank you ❤
Solid analysis thank you ❤
This is my life
6:46 heartbreaking. I have to be reminded that Lenny killed his wife. Heartbreaking. So his wife was raped, survived, then Lenny killed her by accident. But she wanted to die? Heartbreaking.
amazing analysis dude
Thank you so much my friend, it means a lot!!
Brilliantly explained, Mr. Deep Mind.
Great analysis
Thank you!!
This was an excellent analysis.
Teddy must have been the real killer, mathematically.
Did the math on number of John’s in us times number of people with last initial G. Then used crime stats to roughly estimate number of drug dealing criminals with that name.
For the 13 million LA metro inhabitants 249 should be criminals named John G.
The chance of the real killer and Teddy both to just randomly have the name John G. is very small, a bit over 3 in 10 billion.
But if Teddy is the original killer then Teddy has more than a couple hundred other criminals named John G’s to target using Leonard.
Couldnt be that he just happened to have the same initials.