I recently saw the movie chronologically. I Doubt it would be a sensation if it were actually edited this way. What sets this movie apart is that days later you’re still trying to put the key scenes in context, an aspect that was missing from my chronological version. However, even my version forces you to think pretty hard to fill in the gaps, and is better than most of the mindlessness that gets released.
I see my chronological version simply as an answer to a riddle.
Having just seeing it fresh, I decided to write a synopsis:
Leonard’s wife is killed by a drug addict. Leonard sustains brain damage in the attack, develops his memory problem and is sent to a psychiatric facility. He leaves the facility to find the killer.
Teddy is a con man (possibly a former cop) who tells two drug dealers, Jimmy Grantz and Dodd, that he has a load of amphetamines he wants to sell for $200,000.
Teddy convinces Leonard that the killer’s name is John or Jimmy G__ and that he knows where to find him. He sends Leonard to the drug deal in his place. There, Leonard does what Jimmy expects him to do and kills Jimmy Grantz (Leonard of course believes Jimmy killed his wife).
Teddy comes waltzing in to collect the $200,000. Unfortunately for Teddy, Leonard is still there. Teddy tries to confuse Leonard with a load of bull about how his wife survived her attack and that Leonard really killed her. Leonard sees through this and figures out that the whole thing was a setup. This angers Leonard and sees for the first time the lowlife Teddy really is. He decides to “frame” Teddy for the murder of his wife by writing down Teddy’s license plate number. He knows that when he gets the license plate number back he will think Teddy is the killer (This is evidenced when he says to himself: “Would I lie to myself to be happy? In your case Teddy, yes.”) and finally get closure in his life, also to get revenge for Teddy manipulating him.
Much to Teddy’s chagrin, Leonard takes Jimmy’s car with the $200,000 in the trunk. (This is why, later, Teddy keeps asking for Leonard’s keys)
Leonard puts on Jimmy’s jacket where he finds a note from someone named Natalie to meet him at the bar. Thinking that the note was to him, he goes to the bar. Natalie is at first confused why Leonard is in Jimmy’s car, but eventually figures it out.
Dodd thinks Jimmy took off with the $200,000. He begins to threaten Natalie (Jimmy’s girlfriend).
Natalie hatches a plan to take care of Dodd. She befriends Leonard, takes him home, then verbally berates him to goad him into punching her. She later tells him that Dodd was the one who punched her. This infuriates him, and he goes after Dodd and beats the crap out of him, scaring him out of town.
To return the favor, she asks her friend in the DMV run the license plate number, which comes back to Teddy.
Now, thinking that Teddy is the killer of his wife, Leonard kills him.
The End
However, remember when it happens in the timeline, Teddy has toldhim he already killed John G, so he is in his creating an image of completion, with his wife and the tatoo. Kind of completing the circle. Then he stops at the tatoo parlor and he gets the license plate tatoo. But was that always his intention? Maybe he was going to get the “I did it” tatoo as he has invisioned it, but remember the last line of the movie…“OK, where was I?” In front of the tatoo parlor holding a card that says “Fact 6: <lic number>”, ergo that is the tatoo he gets. He has forgotten his intetnion to get the ‘I Did It’ tatoo.