Memento (2000)

Directed by Christopher Nolan
→ Influenced 7 films ← Inspired by 6 films

Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.

View Full Graph Trace Lineage Trace Influence Path

Films that influenced Memento

← Inspired By (6)

Films inspired by Memento

→ Memento influenced these (7)

Sources

Influenced By

  1. Following (1999)
    "Nolan's debut feature — Memento is the natural progression from Following's nested-double-cross structure. Same nonlinear-noir interest, scaled up with a memory-loss conceit." source
  2. Out of the Past (1947)
    "Nolan cited Tourneur's noir as a Memento influence — protagonist piecing together a past he can't fully access, fatalistic structure." source
  3. Performance (1970)
    "Nolan cited Roeg/Cammell's Performance as a Memento touchstone — fractured identity, time-as-puzzle, refusal of straightforward exposition." source
  4. The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
    "Nolan cited Roeg's earlier sci-fi film as an influence — fragmented memory, alien protagonist losing his grip on reality and identity." source
  5. Citizen Kane (1941)
    "Non-linear puzzle-piece narrative reconstructing a life from fragments — the formal heir to Kane's investigative structure." source
  6. Pulp Fiction (1994)
    "Nolan's reverse-chronology structure built directly on Pulp Fiction's normalization of nonlinear narrative for mainstream audiences in the late '90s." source

Influenced

  1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
    "Gondry/Kaufman's memory-erasure film inherits Memento's interest in fragmented consciousness as narrative engine." source
  2. Inception (2010)
    "Nolan's own continuation of Memento's interest in subjective time and unreliable memory — Inception scales the conceit to layered dream-states." source
  3. Tenet (2020)
    "Nolan's most extreme nonlinear film — temporal inversion as plot mechanic — directly extends Memento's reverse-chronology innovation." source
  4. Mr. Nobody (2009)
    "Van Dormael's existential time-loop film is part of the Memento-style turn-of-the-millennium nonlinear-thriller wave." source
  5. Source Code (2011)
    "Duncan Jones's repeated-time-loop thriller inherits Memento's interest in protagonist-as-puzzle-solver against a fractured time substrate." source
  6. Before I Go to Sleep (2014)
    "Joffé's amnesia thriller is a direct Memento descendant — protagonist with anterograde amnesia using notes/photos to investigate her own life." source
  7. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
    "Directed by Christopher Nolan, this film explores the complexities of memory and perception, paralleling John Nash's struggles with schizophrenia in "A Beautiful Mind."" Jubeenshah source

Memento (2000), directed by Christopher Nolan, was inspired by 6 earlier films — including Following, Out of the Past, and Performance — and has been cited as an influence on 7 later works, such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Inception, and Tenet. Check out the citations below.