Memento

Memento (2000)

Timing: 1:53 (113 min)

8.2/10
16082

7.879/10
269780

8.4/10
1298402

All about film

Video 9

Photo 99

Actors and characters

Release date

2000-10-11

Country

United States

Production

Newmarket Films, Team Todd, Summit Entertainment, Newmarket Capital Group, I Remember Productions

Genre

Mystery, Thriller

Budget

$9 000 000

Revenue

$40 060 108

Website

Director

Christopher Nolan

Actors

Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior, Russ Fega, Jorja Fox, Stephen Tobolowsky, Harriet Sansom Harris, Thomas Lennon, Callum Keith Rennie
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd, Aaron Ryder

Operator

Wally Pfister

Composer

David Julyan

Artist

Audition

John Papsidera

Editing

Dody Dorn
All team (38)

• The disease Leonard suffers from is anterograde amnesia: the inability to recall new information learned after the event that caused the amnesia.
• The film was shot in Southern California over 25 days.
• Teddy's phone number, 555-01-34, is the same as Marla Singer's from "Fight Club".
• Leonard Shelby takes all his photos with a Polaroid 690 camera.
• A white Honda Civic can be seen parked near Leonard's Jaguar around the motel. It belongs to director Christopher Nolan.
• Christopher Nolan's first choice for the role of Leonard was actor Alec Baldwin.
• Among Leonard's wife's belongings laid out in the motel room, you can notice a watch. It was stolen by the character Bill in Nolan's film "Following".
• Initially, it was planned that Radiohead's song "Paranoid Android" would play during the end credits. However, Christopher Nolan decided that the licensing cost for using this composition was too high for his low-budget film.
• A limited-edition DVD release includes a film in which the scenes are presented in chronological order.
• Christopher Nolan's screenplay is based on the short story "Memento Mori" written by his brother, Jonathan. However, the film is considered an original work rather than an adaptation, solely because the story was published after the film's release.
• In the initial reverse scene, the shell casing rolls not because it's falling, but because Christopher Nolan blew on it. Filming a close-up of a shell casing falling onto the floor with a static camera proved too difficult. Rather than simply filming the scene and then playing it in reverse, the filmmakers managed to film the scene by feeding the film into the camera in reverse, making the scene appear reversed when played normally. However, the take with the shell casing, simulating a reverse motion, had to be filmed normally, and since it was accidentally shot with the film running backwards, it had to be reversed during editing. Thus, the rolling of the shell casing is a simulation of a reverse take filmed in reverse and then reversed again in editing.
• Christopher Nolan wanted Peter Deming to be the film's cinematographer, but he was busy working on "Scream 3".
• Denis Leary turned down the role of Teddy.
• Before Carrie-Anne Moss was cast as Natalie, Ashley Judd, Famke Janssen, and Angelina Jolie were considered for the role.
• The tattoo parlor where the main character received his tattoos is named «Emma Thomas». This is the name of Christopher Nolan's wife, who is also a producer of the film.
• Aaron Eckhart, Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen, and Thomas Jane were considered for the role of Leonard.
• According to Christopher Nolan, all scenes with Carrie-Anne Moss were filmed in 8 days.
• During the filming of the scene where Teddy says, "You don't have a clue, you freak!", director Christopher Nolan didn't like how Joe Pantoliano, who played Teddy, delivered the ending of the phrase. As a result, Nolan dubbed the last words himself.
• Before filming the fight between Leonard and drug dealer Jimmy, Larry Holden, who played Jimmy, asked Guy Pearce to fight for real. Pearce, a former bodybuilder, agreed and thoroughly beat up his partner.
• In the scene where Leonard tells the story of Sammy being placed in a mental hospital, there's a moment where Sammy is sitting at a table in the hospital, and for a split second, he is replaced by Leonard himself.
• The protagonist claims to have no short-term memory, when in reality he is unable to form long-term memories.
• In the scene where Sammy gives his wife insulin injections, he makes the first injection intravenously. Insulin cannot be injected this way. Furthermore, the plunger on the indicator shows 5 ml after drawing up the medication, and 15 ml immediately before injection. Subsequent injections into the abdomen and thigh are correct.