Something possessed me to rent it last night, and I was very tired but very interested in the development of the story so I was like holding my eyes open to finish it…Well, I finished it, but I still don’t think I have any idea what happened. Can someone (maybe who has seen it a few times?) explain to me what the hell was going on?? Here’s what I got out of it (spoilers here):
Leonard has actually already killed the guy he was looking for but doesn’t remember it. He doesn’t like being told this by the cop since this search is the only thing that gives his life meaning, so he decides to make the cop his Jon G.
…beyond that, I’m pretty confused. Maybe I’m just underestimating myself (or overestimating the plot), but I just felt like a big question mark when it was over. I understood that Natalie was manipulating him, but I don’t get the whole situation with her, or her boyfriend and how he got involved, or Dodd, whoever he was. I don’t get the Sammy Jenkis thing (was it real or not??), and I never figured out what really happened with Leonard’s wife.
I wish I could just see the movie from beginning to end, in sequence, now that I’ve seen it once. I mean, yes, it was a nice effect, how you really don’t know what’s going on any more than the main character, but now it’s over and I still don’t know and I feel both dumb and unfulfilled. Someone help, or I’ll have weird, disconnected dreams again tonight. =(
(While we’re on this subject…I just thought I’d share the totally irrelevant fact that I am now sooo much more of a Carrie-Anne Moss fan now that I’ve seen her say “fuck” like 10 times in the same scene. Call me juvenile, but I was like, whoa. )
I thought it was a fantastic movie. Here’s a hint: The black and white scenes are showed in normal chronological order. IIRC, there is a DVD you can get that has the whole plot done in normal, chronolgical sequence.
Unless I’m mistaken, the DVD that shows the film in chronological order is the Region 2 DVD (US is Region 1), so you need the proper DVD player (or a no region DVD player) to get the version with the film in its chronological order.
Thanks, Baraqiyal; that thread in its entirety was helpful in forming my own interpretation of the movie. I need to see it again to really believe my own reasoning, though; especially since I was tired.
…and, I’m sorry to be apparently the last person to see this movie and wonder about it, but I still have a lot of questions, and maybe some of them can actually be answered rather than just pondered if someone could be bothered to do so. Who is Dodd; what’s his relationship to anything and why does Natalie want him dead, or does she? Natalie apparently knows Teddy was involved in Jimmy’s death, but does she know Gammell = Teddy? Does she know Leonard killed Jimmy? Why does Teddy call himself Teddy? Is it Teddy Leonard’s talking to on the phone half the damn movie? When does Leonard write “don’t believe his lies” on Teddy’s picture, and what prompts it?
…aaagh, maybe I should just buy the damn movie. My head hurts.
> Who is Dodd; what’s his relationship to anything and why does Natalie want him dead, or does she?
Dodd is Jimmy Grantz’s partner/boss. He sent Jimmy to sell the $200,000 worth of amphetamines. After Leonard killed Jimmy, Dodd just assumed Jimmy just took off with the drugs and the money, so he harasses Jimmy’s girlfriend, Natalie. This is why she wants him dead.
I did see the movie chronologically, but more that two years ago. I’ll have to think about your other questions.
He writes that at the end of the film (beginning of the story), when he finds out that he’s been used as a pawn to commit murders on Teddy’s behalf. (Teddy kept up the search for the original guy long after Leonard and him found and killed him, getting Leonard to carry out murders that suit Teddy’s drug trade).
What Leonard’s doing is, he knows he will forget the whole thing, so he leaves himself ‘clues’ pointing to Teddy as the original guy he’s searching for. So he will read the clues later and put them together, which all point to Teddy as the guy he’s looking for, even though he’s just getting revenge for what Teddy made him do (but he doesn’t remember it). He’s setting himself up to kill Teddy later, to make Teddy his ‘next quest’; but he’ll honestly think Teddy is the guy he’s looking for because all his clues point to Teddy.
Check out This site for a really good dissesction of the film.
I’d suggest you get the SE DVD and watch it several times, at least. Then watch all the special features, a lot of stuff is explained in there, too.
The phone conversation is how Teddy figures out Leonard is leaning toward him being the guy Leonard’s after. Which is why in the Hotel parkade he tells Leonard “Don’t write Gammel, write Teddy” on the polariod. He wants Leonard to think he’s named Teddy, not John Gammel, because Leonard let it slip on the phone that his clues pointed to a “John G” or “James G” who was possibly a drug dealer.
Immediately after the movie came out people secured illegal digital copies of the film and began to re-edit it themselves to see if they could discover anything extra by seeing the film played out straightforward. So when the DVD came out in a limited edition the directors felt the need to address this public demand. The DVD has the original movie, tons of extras. But if you do something (which takes awhile to do) you get to watch the titles (the sections of a movie on a DVD) in reverse order. It’s nothing fancy you could probably simulate it with any DVD of the movie. Especially if your DVD player is programmable. There’s quite a bit of overlap but it’s very interesting to watch the time corrected version after you watched it the way it was intended because it gives you another perspective. No one should watch the time corrected version unless they’ve recently seen the movie itself.
Thanks, Baraqiyal and NoGoodNamesLeft; I think now I understand a lot better. I’ve gathered that a lot of the movie is open to interpretation, but I wanted to get what “facts” there are straight before I totally decide what I think. I need to see it again, but as of now I’m pretty convinced Teddy was telling the truth in the end/beginning, if only for lack of motivation to lie. I haven’t decided about Sammy yet…I’m leaning towards him (or at least his wife and a lot of the details) being a figment of Leonard’s imagination.
Anyway, thanks for all the input, everyone, and to anyone who hasn’t already given their interpretation of the movie earlier when everyone else apparently did, I’d love to hear it. =)
Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie this good!
I think my favorite scene in this movie is when he’s talking on phone, and fiddling with one of the bandages he has covering some writing or a tatoo on his body. During the phone call he takes off the bandage and it says “Don’t answer the phone”. I could’ve got some of the details wrong, but that scene so summed up this movie for me just perfectly.
I agree about the limmited edition. Anyone watching the movie in correct, normal order before seeing the original has just ruined the whole experience. They should be shot.
i found the movie incredibly depressing, once it hit me that Lenny wasn’t a victim avenging his wife, but a predator, a serial killer…killing not to be bored.
Lenny is a serial killer, trapped to kill over and over again…because he needs his life to have meaning. He won’t stop, because he can’t, like all serial killers.
He needs to kill to feel.
After each killing, he ‘erases’ his memory (burns photos, etc.) and knowingly starts over again. It’s his choice. Is he mentally ill? Yes, but his lack of memory isn’t his main illness.
I can only imagine how many JohnG’s he has in the basement.
I’m not sure that’s true. I agree about his need to make his life meaningful (and the twisted way he does so), but I don’t think he deliberately forgets. He can’t do anything about that. If he had pictures of the other 'John G’s, I imagine Teddy might have taken them away. And Leonard wouldn’t have known what they meant anyway. “Huh, who’s this guy?” The only reason he knew what the first picture - the one of him smiling and bloody - was was that Teddy had made it clear to him.
I don’t see any evidence that he deliberately chose to keep on killing. As far as I can tell, the only deliberate action he takes during the course of the movie is setting himself up to get Teddy.
Remember in the mental hospital, Lenny kept 2 journals, one hidden from the doctors. He’s a clever bugger. I would imagine he could, if he wanted to have a bunch of JohnG photos hidden from Teddy…he just didn’t want to have the reality of the photos messing up his mission.
Also remember he (Lenny) burns the photo after he kills Jimmy…the only evidence of his success. Okay let’s assume that Lenny’s not an idiot and having a photo of your murder isn’t prudent, however a note or some ink, to remind himself of it would have ended the “mission”. He chose to forget.
Also, this wasn’t Lenny’s first murder, we don’t know how many JohnG’s he’s killing before or after he met Teddy. Still we’re pretty sure he’s killed the original JohnG…if he takes the time to ink other important things, why not that?
Ran out of time, the first time? Okay, then why not Jimmy’s murder? Why should Teddy, be the first and only deliberate act, when Lenny’s only method of survival is repetition?
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