Christopher Nolan’s screenplay is based upon his brother Jonathan Nolan’s story “Memento Mori.” However, it isn’t considered an adaptation as Jonathan’s story was actually published after the film came out.
On the Limited Edition DVD, it is possible to watch the film in chronological order. You must first complete a set of memory puzzles to watch this version, and even then the forward, reverse, and chapter skip commands are all disabled.
Teddy’s (Joe Pantoliano) line “You don’t have a clue, you freak!” is, in part, dubbed by director Christopher Nolan. Nolan didn’t like the way Pantoliano said the ‘,you freak!” part of the line so went back and impersonated the actor, inserting his version of those final two words into the finished cut.
The film took a mere 25 days to shoot.
The medical condition Leonard (Guy Pearce) suffers from is known as Anterograde Amnesia. The sufferer is unable to form new memories after damage to their hippocampus, with the original treatment for the disorder being the actual removal of the damaged part of the brain.
The motel used for filming was chosen due to its ridiculous design.
As Christopher Nolan explained, “If M.C. Escher was going to design a motel, this would be it.”
Nolan’s biggest influence on the film was 1983 novel called Waterland, by Graham Swift.
It’s narrative style includes chapters organised in non-chronological order and it also discusses the themes of how one’s past affect one’s present.
The Nolan Brothers (Christopher and Jonathan) came up with the idea for the film on a cross country driving trip from Chicago to Los Angeles in the mid-nineties. To pass the time they started talking about potential films they would like to make, with Jonathan promoting the idea of a film about a man with anterograde amnesia
Carrie-Anne Moss shot her whole part for the film in eight days.
The expiration date on Teddy’s Driver’s License is 02-29-01, a day that does not exist in reality, since 2001 is not a leap year.
Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen,, Aaron Eckhart, and Thomas Jane were considered for the role of Leonard, before Guy Pearce got the part.
Eckhart would of course later star as Harvey Dent in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008).
The film garnered significant praise from the scientific community, with renowned neuroscientist Christof Koch called it “the most accurate portrayal of the different memory systems in the popular media.”
Memento made back five times its production budget, unprecedented for what amounts to a concept film.
The tattoo parlor in the film is called Emma Thomas. This is the name of Christopher Nolan’s wife, who is also an associate producer on the film.
They has an incredibly hard time finding a distributer for the film. Due to its revolutionary nature, many studios were reluctant to get involved. It took 6 months before Newmarket Films agreed to come aboard.
Despite the opening scene being shown backwards, all the sound effects are ‘normal’ forward-played sound effects. Teddy’s ‘NO!” is the only sound effect played backwards.
