Sometimes a movie is recommended to you because it has a twist ending. This might be one of the few movies that has a twist beginning, or at least a twist ending that got turned into an entire movie all on its own. Long before Christopher Nolan became the director known for massive IMAX epics about space, war, dreams, physics, and Greek soldiers, he kicked off his mainstream movie career with one of the cleverest thrillers made this century. And now, it’s streaming for the low cost of nothing at all.
Memento follows Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), a former insurance investigator who is trying to find the man who murdered his wife. The problem is that Leonard has short-term memory loss, meaning he can’t form new memories and has to rely on Polaroids, handwritten notes, and tattoos across his body to keep track of what he thinks he knows. The cast also includes Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) as Natalie, Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos) as Teddy, Mark Boone Junior (Sons of Anarchy) as Burt, and Stephen Tobolowsky (Groundhog Day) as Sammy Jankis.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz
Which OscarBest Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?
Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
Parasite
Everything Everywhere
Oppenheimer
Birdman
No Country for Old Men
FIND YOUR FILM →
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want?
The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I’m watching one kind of film and then reveals I’m watching another entirely.
BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once.
CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I’m watching.
DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do.
ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame.
NEXT QUESTION →
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02
span question-text >Which idea grabs you most in a film?
span question-sub >Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
p >
label option-btn opt-2a for=q2a >A Class, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity.
label option-btn opt-2b for=q2b >B Identity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart.
label option-btn opt-2c for=q2c >C Genius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back.
label option-btn opt-2d for=q2d >D Ego, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you’re still alive to watch it happen.
label option-btn opt-2e for=q2e >E Evil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.
p >
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03
span question-text >How do you like your story told?
span question-sub >Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
p >
label option-btn opt-3a for=q3a >A Genre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different.
label option-btn opt-3b for=q3b >B Maximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride.
label option-btn opt-3c for=q3c >C Epic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence.
label option-btn opt-3d for=q3d >D A single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I’m living it in real time, no cuts to safety.
label option-btn opt-3e for=q3e >E Spare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
p >
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04
span question-text >What makes a truly great antagonist?
span question-sub >The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
