Memento Timeline Explained Clearly
Memento tells the story of Leonard Shelby, a man with anterograde amnesia. This means he cannot form new memories after a traumatic event. His wife was killed by a man named John G, and Leonard hunts for revenge. But he forgets everything after about 15 minutes. He uses tattoos, notes, and Polaroids to track clues. The movie confuses viewers on purpose to match Leonard’s view of the world.
Christopher Nolan wrote and directed the film to make audiences feel Leonard’s short-term memory loss. He did this with a special structure. The main color scenes run backwards. Each scene starts where the last one ended, but shows what happened just before it. So, you see the result first, then the cause. This way, you feel lost at the start of every scene, like Leonard does. As the scene goes on, you get clues about how things happened.
To avoid boredom from all backwards scenes, Nolan added black-and-white scenes that run forward in time. These are phone calls between Leonard and a mysterious voice. They give backstory about his condition and his wife’s attack. The black-and-white parts start early in the story and move toward the end. The color parts start at the end and move back to the beginning. They meet in the middle, which is the film’s true ending.
Here is the timeline broken down simply, from earliest event to latest.
Leonard and his wife Sammy Jankis are at a hospital. Sammy has the same amnesia as Leonard now has. Leonard, who was an insurance investigator then, tests Sammy. Sammy cannot learn new skills because of his condition. This sets up Leonard’s belief that he can train his brain with routines.
Later, Leonard’s own wife gets attacked at their home. A man named John G rapes and kills her. Or does he? Leonard kills the first attacker but gets hit on the head. This gives him amnesia. He thinks he killed the wrong man and keeps hunting John G.
Months pass. Leonard stays at the Discount Inn motel. He meets Teddy, a crooked cop who pretends to help. Teddy tells Leonard that they already caught and killed the real John G. But Teddy uses Leonard’s condition to make him kill drug dealers for a fee. Teddy even shows Leonard photos of the dead “John G” bodies.
Leonard starts to suspect Teddy. He finds clues that Teddy is not who he says. In one key moment, Leonard writes on a photo of Teddy: “Do not believe his lies.” But he forgets this note quickly.
The story builds to a shooting. In the color scenes, which play backwards, you see Leonard shoot Teddy at the motel. But watching forward in real time, Leonard meets a man named Jimmy Grantz, who is connected to drugs. Jimmy attacks Leonard. Leonard kills Jimmy in self-defense. Then Natalie, Jimmy’s girlfriend, helps Leonard hide the body. She uses him to get revenge on Teddy too.
Leonard tattoos Sammy’s story on his hand as a reminder. But clues reveal Sammy was real, and Leonard’s wife survived the attack. She tested Leonard’s amnesia by making him give her insulin shots over and over. She died from diabetes, not murder. Teddy (real name John Gammell) told Leonard this truth. But Leonard, in denial, rewrote his notes to make Teddy the killer.
In the end, Leonard tricks himself. He takes Jimmy’s note with “John G” on it and copies it as a fake license plate clue. He tattoos it too. This sends him on a new loop to kill another innocent. He shoots Teddy, believing it’s revenge. But it’s just another cycle.
The black-and-white scenes end with Leonard hanging up the phone and switching to color. That’s where the timelines connect. The whole film shows how Leonard’s unreliable memory creates his reality. You piece it together only after multiple watches.
For more on the structure, check out this explanation from AV Club: https://www.avclub.com/how-momento-gave-its-audience-short-term-memory-loss-1798348438.
Sources
https://www.avclub.com/how-momento-gave-its-audience-short-term-memory-loss-1798348438
https://collider.com/great-mystery-movie-twists-remain-untouchable/
