Trivia for
Memento (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• The movie was filmed in Southern California, in and around the Sunland/Tujunga area. Other driving scenes were filmed in Burbank on Victory Blvd.
  
  
• The film took 25 days to shoot.
  
  
• Teddy's phone number, 555-0134, is the same as Marla Singer's number in Fight Club (1999). It is also the same as the Hong Kong Restaurant in Harriet the Spy (1996), Eddie Alden's in Someone Like You... (2001) and a Mental institution in an episode of "Millennium" (1996/I).
  
  
• Stephen Tobolowsky would later play another man with a memory problem in an episode of "The Lone Gunmen" (2001).
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• The tattoo parlor in the movie is named after Emma Thomas, who is writer/director Christopher Nolan's wife and the movie's associate producer.
  
  
• The camera Leonard Shelby uses is a Polaroid 690.
  
  
• Christopher Nolan's white Honda Civic can be seen parked next to Leonard Shelby's Jaguar at the motel.
  
  
• Christopher Nolan's screenplay was based on his brother Jonathan Nolan's story "Memento Mori". But the screenplay is still considered original (rather than adapted) because Jonathan's story wasn't published until after the film was completed.
  
  
• Christopher Nolan's first choice for the role of Leonard was Alec Baldwin.
  
  
• In the reversed opening scene, the footage of the shell casing reversing is really writer/director Christopher Nolan blowing on it, since it would have been too difficult to try to get the shell casing in a close-up view as it hit the ground, while keeping the camera still. In order to get a better looking scene in reverse, they didn't simply film it forward and reverse it in editing. They actually fed the film through in reverse, making a crisper picture. However, this specific shot was not meant to be filmed in reverse. It was done accidentally, and so they had to, in editing, reverse it. That means it's a shot of a simulated reversal, recorded backwards, and then manually reversed to get the desired effect.
  
  
• Although the opening scene is literally shown backwards every single sound effect is in fact a "normal" forward-played sound effect. The only sound played backwards is Teddy screaming, "No!"
  
  
• Lenny's wife's stuff that he has the hooker put around the motel room included a clock that was stolen by Bill from the Blonde in Christopher Nolan's film Following (1998)
  
  
• EASTER EGG: in the Limited Edition DVD (and in 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 scenes of the regular cut of the movie appear normal in this version, meaning they are not reversed. However, this version of the movie is 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.
  
  
• "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.
  
  
• Aaron Eckhart, Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen and Thomas Jane were considered for the role of Leonard before Guy Pearce got the part.
  
  
• 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 very beginning soon after the injury, 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.
  
  
• The novel Leonard's wife is shown reading is 'Claudius the God', by Robert Graves.
  
  
• At one point in the film, Leonard quickly passes in front of a comic book store. The Batman logo is displayed prominently on the store's window. Five years later, Memento director Christopher Nolan would helm Batman Begins (2005), and later, The Dark Knight (2008).
  
  
• Before 'Carrie Ann Moss' was cast as Natalie, Ashley Judd, Famke Janssen and Angelina Jolie were considered to play the role.
  
  

• SPOILER: 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.
  
  
• SPOILER: The picture of Leonard that Leonard finds in the envelope under his motel door shows him pointing at a bare spot on his chest. He tells Natalie that this spot is reserved for when he finds John G. Later, when Leonard is driving to the tattoo parlor, he thinks about his wife, and a flashback his shown in which he is lying in bed with his wife. The bare spot in this shot now contains: "I've done it."
  
  
• SPOILER: After his wife's death, Sammy is shown sitting in a mental institution. Just before the scene cuts back to Leonard for the third time, Sammy is replaced by Leonard when someone walks in front of him.
  
  
• SPOILER: While Leonard is watching TV at Natalie's, a picture of a needle with a person wearing a white v-neck shirt in the background can be seen. In the story of Sammy Jankis, Sammy injects his wife with insulin while he watches TV. Thus, Nolan alludes to the possibility that Sammy Jankis's story is really Leonard's own. Moreover, the white v-neck in the background is the same shirt that Leonard's wife wears in another scene.
  
  
• SPOILER: During Leonard's third and final conversation with the anonymous caller, his fingers hover over the numbers 555-0134. This is Teddy's phone number, which is on the bottom of his photograph, thus hinting that Leonard is actually talking to Teddy.
  
  

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