Memento | Film | 2000 (2024)

FAQs

What Memento means? ›

an object or item that serves to remind one of a person, past event, etc.; keepsake; souvenir.

In fact, Leonard killed that man a year ago, and Teddy has been using Leonard's condition to his advantage ever since, essentially making the very driven man his own personal contract killer, engineering clues that will lead Leonard to his chosen target.

The twist comes at the movie's end when Memento reveals Catherine survived the initial attack. Not believing Leonard's condition is real, Catherine (who is diabetic) attempts to call his bluff by having him assist her with her insulin shot one day.

Memento Theme Analysis

I think the main thrust of this movie is about control. Every character in this movie thinks they have a semblance of it. Whether it's Leonard seeking his revenge, control through his notes and tattoos, Teddy controlling Leonard and sending him on missions, or Natalie's control over Leonard.

Memento comes from the imperative form of meminisse, a Latin verb that literally means "to remember." (The term memento mori, meaning "a reminder of mortality," translates as "remember that you must die.") The history of memento makes it clear where its spelling came from, but because a memento often helps one remember ...

Memento mori (Latin for "remember (that you have) to die") is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death. The concept has its roots in the philosophers of classical antiquity and Christianity, and appeared in funerary art and architecture from the medieval period onwards.

Type of Villain

John Edward Gammel, more commonly referred to throughout the movie as Teddy, and situationally John G, is the deuteragonist of the 2000 movie Memento. He is an officer of the law that assisted Leonard Shelby in locating and killing the man that assaulted, raped, and potentially murdered his wife.

He remembers it as Sammy's story instead of his own to spare himself from the pain of the truth. The reality is that he accidentally killed his own wife due to an insulin overdose. If you follow all of that, the conclusion you come to is that the killer is, in fact, Leonard.

At the film's climax, where the backwards-flowing coloured scenes and chronological black-and-white scenes meet, Teddy reveals to Leonard (or rather, reminds him of) the actual truth. That he is responsible for his wife's death and that he invented the story of Sammy Jankis to cope with his guilt.

Teddy tells Leonard there are plenty of John Gs to find and admits that he is even a John G: his full name is John Edward Gammell and his mother calls him Teddy. Before Lenny can forget, he decides to continue the hunt, lying to himself to set himself up to kill Teddy.

Was Leonard's wife diabetic? ›

Finally, Teddy also mentions that it was Leonard's wife who was diabetic (Sammy Jankis didn't have a wife). Leonard just invented Sammy's story because he couldn't cope with the fact he had accidentally killed his wife, so he repressed this entire memory.

Leonard meets Natalie, a bartender who seems to genuinely care for him. She provides him with information about a drug dealer named Dodd, whom he believes could be his wife's killer. Leonard kills Dodd, convinced that he has avenged his wife's death.