26 Years Later, This Remains Christopher Nolan's Best Twist Ending

Published Sep 1, 2026, 9:12 PM EDT Liam Gaughan is a film and TV writer at Collider. He has been writing film reviews and news coverage for ten years. Between relentlessly adding new titles to his watchlist and attending as many screenings as he can, Liam is always watching new movies and television shows. In addition to reviewing, writing, and commentating on both new and old releases, Liam has interviewed talent such as Mark Wahlberg, Jesse Plemons, Sam Mendes, Billy Eichner, Dylan O'Brien, Luke Wilson, and B.J. Novak. Liam aims to get his spec scripts produced and currently writes short films and stage plays. He lives in Allentown, PA. Christopher Nolan is without a doubt the most successful and prominent filmmaker of his generation, and one of his most impressive gifts has been his ability to end his films on a high note. Nolan’s films consistently pay off, leaving viewers with an exhilarating ending that fits everything together, instead of resulting in the sort of disappointments that M. Night Shyamalan has become known for. Although his endings have included everything from massive setpieces to shocking character reveals, Nolan solidified himself as a genius storyteller with the ending of Memento, his second-ever film. His debut, Following, marked him as an interesting indie director that no one had been taking all that seriously, but Memento sent the word out to Hollywood that Nolan was going to be a major force to be reckoned with. Co-written by Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan, Memento stars Guy Pearce as former insurance investigator Leonard Shelby, whose diagnosis of anterograde amnesia means that he is incapable of forming new memories. Leonard is trying to find out who killed his wife, Catherine (Jorja Fox), but can only use the clues that he has left behind for himself, in the form of copious notes, both written on paper and tattooed on his own body. Although he gets some assistance from his contact Teddy Gammell (Joe Pantoliano), Leonard eventually finds up a photo of Teddy that he had previously written "don't believe his lies" on. It’s a fascinating thriller that uses the unique structure of telling the story in reverse, as well as incorporating black-and-white footage to tell the story of the patient Sammy (Stephen Tobolowsky) in order to offer more information about the condition itself. Memento could have easily been so ambitious that it didn’t end on a narratively satisfying note, but Nolan twists the knife in the third act with an ending that changes the context of the story and establishes themes that he would become obsessed with for the rest of his career. ‘Memento’s Ending Flips Its Entire Premise Image via Newmarket Films Since Teddy’s investigation in Memento is told in reverse, the film builds up to the beginning of the story, where it is revealed that the man he has been searching for, Jimmy (Larry Holden), is not his wife’s killer; the real killer is “John G.,” who Leonard already killed months ago, according to Teddy. With no other means of handling his grief, Leonard has planted false clues for himself to pick up so that he is involved in a constant cycle of revenge, taking down anyone who he has gotten into conflicts with in the past. He guarantees that these revenge missions will feel empowering and authentic because he allows himself to forget that his wife’s murder is already solved, ensuring that he still has the greatest motivation to provide justice. The conclusion sets the story in motion by showing that the entire film has been a misguided investigation into a case that is already solved, and that Leonard has been lying to the viewer as much as he has to himself. Pulling off the difficult structure of Memento was not an easy task, but Nolan was able to separate the timelines in a logical way that gave the audience the same feeling that Leonard has when he loses his memory and wakes up confused. Although it’s a film that has inspired significant amounts of analysis and theorizing, Nolan’s method of telling the story is the preferable one; there have been chronological edits that reframe the events in the order that they occur, but they do not show as much sympathy for Leonard or succeed in a dramatic way. The most important gut punch of the ending is recognizing that Leonard is more than just an anti-hero, but both a hero and villain at the same time. Whether he should be held responsible for actions that he literally does not remember or have control over is a moral debate that makes the film just as fascinating 26 years later. ‘Memento’ Set the Precedent for Christopher Nolan’s Career Memento served as a thesis statement for Nolan’s intentions as a filmmaker, because it established his interest in the notion of time loops, which would pop up again many times throughout his filmography. There are literal time loops in Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet, but there are also thematic allusions to repetition; The Dark Knight suggests that Batman (Christian Bale) and the Joker (Heath Ledger) will be chasing one another forever because they are both unwilling to kill the other and in The Odyssey, it is explained by Odysseus (Matt Damon) that breaking “Zeus’ Law” has set humanity on a cycle of warfare that will plunge civilization into the Dark Ages. It’s also a theme that is brought up constantly within the work of Nolan’s brother, including his HBO television series Westworld. Despite being a low-budget neo-noir film, Memento became a phenomenon because, as Nolan proved, having a great script and idea were the most important aspect of filmmaking, as resources on their own could not replace creativity. Because of what Nolan accomplished so early on in his career, he has consistently been given opportunities to expand his horizons by working on projects of larger scale, all of which retain that same creative spark. Decades later, he approaches the storytelling with the same inspired creativity that he used when making Memento into an instant classic. Memento Release Date October 11, 2000 Runtime 113 minutes