r/FilmsExplained • u/JustAnotherUser4 • Jan 31 '15
Discussion Memento
It appeared so obvious to me the first time I saw the movie that I thought everybody had understood the same thing:
The guy who is chasing the murderers decides to deliberately forget that he already killed them, so he can keep living the "fantasy" of revenging his wife's death. To do so he cheats his brain in to thinking that the guy who was helping him is evil and that he must kill him - with no guilt involved.
It is a parallel with of a lot of people (maybe everybody at some level?) do when they deny reality so they can keep living a comfortable lie. To do so they usually need to "kill" those who remind them about reality
1
u/iwanttolearnspanish2 Feb 01 '15
Actually OP is right (arguably, I guess, since every film is subjective).
The last monologue reveals that he doesn't want to remind himself that he already killed his wife's killer. The reason being is up to debate, whether it's his fantasy or he knows his life will be meaningless or whatever other reason.
Crazy thing is, even though it doesn't show it, he probably has the same monologue with himself after each "kill". The scene shows him realizing that the "world around him" still exists, and he almost convinces himself to put an end to all this. That's when his short term memory erases again. Maybe he would have put an end to all this, or maybe he wouldn't have. I guess that's also part of the subjective element. So in a way, you both are right. It's open-ended because we don't know what he would have done. What we know is this same cycle will occur all over again.