Question: I still don't understand why Leonard switches clothes with Jimmy and steals his car after he kills him. "I'd rather be mistaken for a dead guy than a killer." That makes absolutely no sense. Driving around in Jimmy's car and wearing his suit would make him the prime suspect in the investigation. He was much safer when he was just an anonymous guy driving around in a pickup truck.
Question: On the third disc, apparently there are some alternate endings hidden in an easter egg. Can anyone tell me how to get to them?
Answer: The are no alternative endings for this film, all that is on the third disk is the movie played in chronologial order so you can see how things really panned out.
Question: Why doesn't Teddy tell Leonard that he just killed a John G after he meets him after getting his tattoo, which is before in the color scenes. He also never says that they killed the real killer over a year ago. Why doesn't Teddy just remind him about that every time, to save his life and avoid Leonard getting mad. Also, when Leonard sees a picture of Natalie he doesn't recognize her but asks Teddy and says he doesn't know who she is but before in the car when he walks in. He obviously knows who she is and states not to trust her and she had already used him but forgot about it. Also she wants to kill Teddy because he killed John G and supposedly then had never met and she mentions him when she got hit by Leonard.
Question: I've read every thing on the Internet i can find and i still don't completely understand the plot. Every explanation leaves questions, such as how does Jimmy (the boyfriend of Natalie that Lenny kills) know about Sammy (he mutters 'Sammy' as he's being dragged down the stairs). How does Natalie know about Lenny (the first time he goes into the bar she says something along the lines of 'you're the memory guy' which suggests she knew he was coming). Can anyone answer these questions or let me know a site where the whole thing is explained?
Answer: There's an official web site: http://www.otnemem.com/, as well as one written by Chris Nolan, Jonathan's brother (Understanding Memento): http://www.christophernolan.net/memento_un.php. There's also very good Movie FAQ here: http://www.designpattern.org/wp/?page_id=13.
Answer: Jimmy sold drugs out of the motel that Leonard was staying in, and he had the guy on the front desk alert him to anyone snooping around. He would have checked Leonard out, probably interacted with him, learned about his condition, and heard the Sammy story. He would have mentioned this weird memory guy he'd met to Natalie. When Leonard turned up at the bar wearing Jimmy's clothes, claiming not to remember anything, she would've put two and two together. The fact that she tested him with the 'bar bet' beer suggests that she hadn't met him previously, only heard about him from Jimmy.
Question: Why is Leonard so certain that his wife didn't have diabetes?
Answer: Because if he admits that his wife was the diabetic, then that opens the door to the possibility that it was HE who killed his wife with an overdose of insulin, and not Sammy Jankis. He can't face that possibility, so he simply denies that she was ever diabetic.
Question: So if Leonard actually killed his wife, even though he denies it, did Sammy Jankins ever exist? And all of the times Sammy's wife asked Sammy to give her the insulin, did that actually happen with Leonard's wife, or did Leonard just give her the shots without her agreeing? And if he did kill his wife when he had the "condition", does it ever say where or when he really got it?
Answer: Sammy Jankis did exist, but Leonard exposed him for being the conman that he was; however Leonard conditions himself to remember this differently. Right after Leonard kills Jimmy, Leonard is insisting that "Sammy Jankis wasn't faking." Teddy retorts that "Sammy was a con-man, a faker," and says "You exposed him for what he was: a fraud." The implication is that Sammy Jankis was a fraud with a story similar to what actually happens to Leonard; Leonard conditions himself to remember it differently so that he can use this false memory of an innocent man with the same condition to help him do two things: not feel responsible for his wife's death, and also give his life purpose by consistently having a John G, who supposedly killed his wife, to search for.
However, if Leonard did accidentally kill his wife with insulin, it was after his injury. He wouldn't remember it. Removing pages from the police report indicating that she survived the original incident would have been enough to hide the truth from himself forever. No memory, no guilt.
Question: In the scene where Leonard rolls up to Ferdy's, and Natalie mistakes him for Jimmy, he says he's not Jimmy, she has a certain look in her eye that I just can't grasp. Why then, doesn't Natalie ever tell Lenny that he's driving Jimmy's car and is wearing his clothes? Does that imply she already knows him and perhaps she's using him to kill Jimmy for her?
Answer: No, that doesn't imply she already knows him. She used him to kill Teddy and Dodd (not Jimmy), because of her boyfriend Jimmy who was missing at that point. She was only suspicious of Leonard, because of the car and the clothes, but even more so when he showed her the coaster meant for her boyfriend.
Question: I still can't access the easter egg on my DVD and I would really like the chance to watch this movie from beginning to end in that order. I have the limited edition 2 disc set. It's frustrating because the directions people are giving are not specific at all. Please, please, somebody just explain it to me one step at a time, because it says to go to special features, but which picture is the special features? On the main menu are nothing but little pictures of random stuff like a book, telephone, etc. Which one is the special features and do what from there?
Question: How do I access the easter egg on the DVD?
Answer: From the disc's main menu, go to the 'Special Features.' Here, select the entry 'Memento' and you will get to a newspaper page featuring select words that slowly fade in and out. Highlighting each fading word takes you to another part of the original website. However, if you move over to the word 'Questions' in the title of the article - it barely fades in and out - you'll see that there's scribbled underlining there. Click and you'll see a scrap of paper reading: 'who did I kill?' Click the arrow that leads to the right and you'll be taken to a list of names. Click almost any name and you'll get sent back to the article. However, if you click the name 'Teddy' you'll be taken to a credits screen for the people who worked on the DVD. http://www.dvdreview.com/eastereggs/collect/296.html.
Answer: It is never explicitly given. The most Leonard says on the subject is: "I'd rather be mistaken for a dead guy than a killer." Speculations include (you can make up your own motives as well) : (1) The clothes and car are so much nicer than his. If you are willing to kill someone: stealing is not really a "crime." Why not take the nicer objects? (2) It could be part of his "routine": Kill a man, take his clothes and car. The clothes he had on and the truck may be from the man he killed a year ago. (3) It could be that he wants to make the killer of his wife suffer even more, and takes his clothes as a way of humiliating him. Leonard takes the man's life-his clothes and car, which are wrapped up in his identity-just as the man took his. This idea seems to work with a theme in Memento about "Identity" (especially mistaken identity). Natalie thinks Leonard is Jimmy, then thinks he is Teddy, then learns he is Leonard. Teddy is "mistaken" for the second killer, Jimmy is "mistaken" for the 2nd killer. Sammy's story as a part of Leonard's story, etc. (4) It could "simply" be explained as a "plot device": Leonard has to do it, otherwise he won't find the note in "his pocket" and meet Natalie. (5) Leonard doesn't want to admit he's a murderer. He's lying to himself. If he's the victim, then he cannot be the murderer. (6) Leonard takes Jimmy's clothing as part of his routine of killing J.G.'s he becomes another person, he's the victim not the killer, thus "I'd rather be mistaken for a dead guy than a killer." and that's why he also takes his car, so he has to, once again, find his wife's killer and kill him.