What Memento reveals about human nature, 25 years later
Christopher Nolan has cemented his status as one of our most consistently original and thought-provoking directors. Over the last 25 years, Nolan has delivered film after film that deftly balances mainstream appeal with eye-popping visuals, inventive narrative structures and special effects, and existential and/or philosophical themes. And it all started with his big breakthrough film: Memento, which marks the 25th anniversary this year of its US release.
(Spoilers below, but we'll give you a heads up before the major reveals.)
The origins of Memento are now the stuff of Hollywood legend. Nolan's brother, Jonathan, pitched him a story during a road trip about a man with anterograde amnesia who can't form new lasting memories and yet is intent on tracking down and killing the man who raped and killed his wife. Nolan liked the idea, and Jonathan sent him a draft a few months later. (That draft would eventually become Jonathan's short story, "Memento Mori," published after the film's release.)