Memento - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Memento or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Memento

[ethel]

(At around fifty-five minutes) The book that Leonard's wife is reading, which begins, "Two years have gone by since I finished the long story.", is Claudius the God by Robert Graves.

[elmer]

"Paranoid Android" by Radiohead was originally going to be used in the closing credits, but Christopher Nolan decided that the royalties needed to use this song (owned by Capitol Records) would be too great for this low-budget film.

[morris]

Before filming the scene where Leonard kills Jimmy, Larry Holden told Guy Pearce to really attack him. Pearce, a former bodybuilder, complied, and left Holden covered in bruises after the scene.

[fred]

The tattoo parlor in the movie is named after Emma Thomas, who is Christopher Nolan's wife, and the movie's associate producer.

[veronica]

All of the dialogue in black-and-white sequences that feature Sammy (Stephen Tobolowsky) was improvised.

[willard]

Christopher Nolan's white Honda Civic can be seen parked next to Leonard Shelby's (Guy Pearce's) Jaguar at the motel.

[bernice]

The medical condition experienced by Leonard in this film is a real condition called anterograde amnesia, the inability to form new memories after damage to the hippocampus. During the 1950s, doctors treated some forms of epilepsy by removing parts of the temporal lobe, resulting in the same memory problems.

[carla]

Teddy's (Joe Pantoliano) phone number (555 0134) is same as Marla Singer's (Helena Bonham Carter) in Fight Club (1999).

[sylvia]

In one scene, Leonard quickly passes in front of a comic book store. The Batman emblem is displayed prominently on the store's window. Christopher Nolan later directed Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). There is also a Superman emblem in the same store window; Nolan was producer of Man of Steel (2013) and is executive producer of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).

[richard]

When Teddy tells Leonard to write "do not trust her" on Natalie's picture (which he later crosses out) he writes it in cursive. All of Leonard's other notes were in block print.

[dustin]

Stephen Tobolowsky has stated that during his audition for Sammy, he had mentioned to Christopher Nolan that he had experienced amnesia personally. A few years earlier, he was given an experimental pain killer that induced amnesia for a surgery he had undergone. Tobolowsky said it may have helped him get the part, because no other actor would likely have had his first-hand experience.

[christina]

EASTER EGG: The Limited Edition DVD (and the standard Region 2 edition) allows the movie to be watched in the exact chronological order of the events in the film. The first couple of scenes of the regular cut of the movie appear normal in this version, meaning they are not reversed. However, this version of the movie on Disc 2 is quite difficult to reach (the user must answer several questions and solve a puzzle), and forward, reverse, and chapter skip capabilities are disabled.

[gabriel]

Christopher Nolan's screenplay was based on his brother Jonathan Nolan's story "Memento Mori." However, the screenplay is still considered original (rather than adapted), because Jonathan's story wasn't published until after the film was completed.

[russell]

Ashley Judd, Famke Janssen, and Angelina Jolie were considered for the role of Natalie.

[ken]

When we first see Leonard's map of the area, we can see two streets that have commonality with Blue Velvet (1986). There is a "Booth Street", the primary antagonist in Blue Velvet (1986) is Frank Booth. A second street, worthy of note, is "Lincoln Street", which Jeffrey is explicitly told to avoid, and where the apartment of Dorothy Vallens resides in Blue Velvet (1986). These are the only roads that are not nominally numerical, for example "Seventh Street".

[ava]

Chronology: When numbering the scenes chronologically, then sorting them how they appear in the film, the pattern becomes more clear. The letters A-V will represent the color scenes (with A happening chronologically first, and V chronologically last), and the numbers 1-22 represent the black and white scenes chronologically. The scenes appear in the film like this: 1, V, 2, U, 3, T, 4, S, 5, R, 6, Q...20, C, 21, B, 22/A[1] The two types of scenes alternate. The black and white scenes (numbers) start from the beginning, and work forward to the climax at 22/A, while the color scenes (letters) work backward from the climax at 22/A. The climax scene (22/A) changes to color halfway through, showing the convergence of the two story lines.

[jesse]

The camera Leonard Shelby uses is a Polaroid 690.

[elmer]

The address on Teddy's driver's license has a non-existent zip code (94181) transposed from an actual San Francisco zip code 94118. The address number on Pine Street (an actual street in San Francisco) shown does not lie inside zip code 94118.

[kristen]

Christopher Nolan's first choice for the role of Leonard was Alec Baldwin.