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Memento is a 2000 psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, adapted from his younger brother Jonathan's short story "Memento Mori". It stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a former insurance fraud investigator searching for the man he believes raped and killed his wife during a burglary. Leonard has anterograde amnesia, which he developed as a result of the severe head trauma during the attack on his wife. This renders his brain unable to store new memories. To cope with his condition, he maintains a system of notes, photographs, and tattoos to record information about himself and others, including his wife's killer.

This feature is often used to show the distinction between plot and story. The film's events unfold in two separate, alternating narratives—one in color, and the other in black and white. The black and white sections are told in chronological order, showing Leonard conversing with an anonymous phone caller in a motel room. Leonard's investigation is depicted in color sequences that are in reverse chronological order. As each sequence begins, the spectator is unaware of the preceding events, just like Leonard giving the viewer a sense of Lenny's confusion.

At the start of the film (end of the story) we are shown that he has just killed Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) for the crime based on information provided by Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss). By the film's end, the two narratives converge in a single sequence that begins as black and white and transforms into color during the development of a polaroid picture, and we get to see the investigation and the events that lead up to the death of Teddy.



Memento is presented in two alternating sequences of scenes; one set of scenes, filmed in black and white, progresses forward, while the second set of scenes are in color and presented in reverse order; the two sequences "meet" at the end of the film, thus overall describing one common story. The plot is described below in chronological order (not in the order that scenes are shown in the film):

The main character of the story is Leonard Shelby, a man who has anterograde amnesia, causing him to lose his memories of recent events, unable to form new memories for himself. As the black-and-white narrative opens, he finds himself in a hotel room with instructions from himself to shave a portion of his body and tattoo information onto it, similar to numerous other tattoos he has. As he does this, he receives a phone call, and, when asked, proceeds to tell the caller of what he remembers.

Leonard explains to the caller that he was an insurance claims investigator, and was assigned the case of Sammy Jankis, a man who seemed to be experiencing anterograde amnesia. Leonard explains how Sammy's inability to even learn via conditioning makes him unable to allow Sammy to get compensation, expressing how he felt Sammy's condition could not be physical in nature, suggested his condition was simply psychological. One day after the denial of Sammy's claim, Sammy's wife, out of a mixture of grief and desire to know if her husband's condition was sincere, asked him for a shot of insulin every few minutes, pretending each one was her first, knowing that if her husband's condition were real, he would continue to give her insulin even though it would kill her. The overdose was fatal. Later, Leonard and his wife are attacked by two unknown assailants, causing his wife to die from strangulation while Leonard becomes afflicted with anterograde amnesia. Leonard has killed one of the attackers, but is now after the 2nd attacker. Keeping Sammy's case close in mind, he is using a system of Polaroid photographs and tattoos on his body to retain information that he needs, such as the second attacker is a "white male" with the first name of "John" and the last name starting with "G", and allowing him to function with his amnesia.

During the call, Leonard realizes that his tattoos have told him never to answer the phone, and quickly tries to hang up; the caller insists that he is a cop and that he needs to meet with Leonard. Leonard meets Officer Gammell in the lobby, though Gammell insists that Leonard call him Teddy since he is undercover. Teddy reveals that a man named Jimmy Grantz is the second attacker and sends Leonard to a desolate building to meet and there Leonard kills Jimmy on Teddy's word, taking a photo of the scene. At this point, the two separate sequences in the movie overlap. As the photo develops the black and white shot gradually transforms into a colored shot of a photo of Jimmy's body. As Leonard drags the body down the stairs he hears Jimmy whisper "sammy.." and realizes that he must have killed the wrong man.

Teddy arrives and tries to convince Leonard that Jimmy was the 2nd attacker, but Leonard does not believe him. Teddy then tells that Leonard he is right, Jimmy is not the 2nd attacker. Teddy tells Leonard that he killed the "real" John G. over a year ago. Teddy also insists that Leonard is confusing elements of Sammy's story with his own, Sammy having been single and a con man trying to defraud the insurance company; Teddy asserts that Leonard's wife survived the attack and that Leonard later himself administered his wife's overdose of insulin after the onset of his amnesia. After hearing what Teddy states Leonard purposely destroys the photos indicating his quest is done, writes down "don't believe his lies" on Teddy's photograph and leaves a note to himself to get a tattoo with Teddy's license plate implicating him as his wife's murderer, even though he admits to the lie to himself: "You think I just want another puzzle to solve? Another John G. to look for? You're a John G. So you can be my John G. Do I lie to myself to be happy? In your case, Teddy, yes, I will." Leonard then leaves in Jimmy's car. After Leonard reaches town and having forgot how he set himself up, he comes across a tattoo parlor and follows his instructions with regards to Teddy's license plate.

While looking for clues in his pockets, Leonard finds a note on a bar coaster that Natalie left for Jimmy. No longer knowing that he took Jimmy's clothes, Leonard believes the note was meant for him so he takes Jimmy's car (believing now that it is his car) and Leonard goes to meet Natalie at a bar. At the bar, he meets Natalie, Jimmy's girlfriend, who is initially hostile to Leonard wondering why Leonard is at the bar in Jimmy's car and wearing Jimmy's clothes. However, as Leonard explains his situation, Natalie realizes she can manipulate Leonard, turning him on a man named Dodd that she claims has been trying to harass her in order to get back at Jimmy. Leonard is able to track Dodd down and capture him; with Teddy's help, they force him to leave town. Again, Teddy attempts to warn Leonard of his dangerous quest, but Leonard refuses to listen based on his own comment scrawled on Teddy's photograph. Leonard returns to Natalie, and the two spend the night together, with Natalie promising to retrieve the driver's license of the car that his latest tattoo is registered to. They meet the next afternoon and she provides Leonard with the information as well as a desolate location in order to kill him. Leonard finds the information points to Teddy, whose full name is "John Edward Gammell", matching all the facts of the case based on his tattoos; his own warning on Teddy's picture affirms his suspicions. He takes Teddy to the deserted location that Natalie had given him (which is the same desolate building where he killed Jimmy), and shoots Teddy in the head. Leonard takes a picture of dead Teddy just like he took a picture of dead Jimmy. This scene is the opening scene of the movie behind the movie credits, and is the only scene in the movie that played in reverse.