No matter which film he releases, Christopher Nolan’s filmography is just full of perfect little hints that once discovered, change your viewing experience.
The most high-profile example is probably Interstellar, where ticks every 1.25 seconds you hear on the planet Matthew McConaughey’s Cooper visits represent a full year they spend there.
Add to this the secret methods people have spotted to figure out whether you’re dreaming or not in Inception, or the references to Heat in The Dark Knight, and it's clear Nolan loves leaving little clues and details hidden in his films.
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The issue is though, unless one is new like Oppenheimer, you’ve often seen most of the big theories before.
In this case, however, one fan has found a detail in Memento which is a blink-and-you’ll-miss it frame so hidden it seems like it has only now been discovered, 24 years on from the film’s release.
For those who don’t know the film, Memento came out in 2000 and starring Guy Pearce, Carrie Ann Moss, and Joe Pantoliano, it is often considered one of Nolan’s most underrated.
The film has an average score of 8.4 on IMDb, added to its outstanding 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Pearce stars as Leonard Shelby, an insurance investigator, who suffers from a rare form of amnesia.
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To deal with this, he uses notes and tattoos, and uses these to try and hunt for the man who he thinks killed his wife.
Spoilers ahead for the end of Memento. It’s 24 years old and I’ve warned you, so no angry emails allowed.
The find was posted to the subreddit r/MovieDetails, as they wrote: “At 1hr 30 minutes into Memento (2000) the ending is revealed in a split-second blink-and-you'll-miss it frame.”
If you don’t get it go watch the movie and come back, because the fact no one has noticed this until now is crazy.
The single frame of the film shows Sammy Jankis, played by Stephen Tobolowsky, with the face of Guy Pearce’s Leonard Shelby.
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This, despite there being another 23 minutes of the film left, shows the reveal of the ending, that there was no Sammy Jankis and the implication that it was actually Leonard who killed his wife.
Film fans understandably lost it at this single frame showing the ending ahead of time.
One commented: “Holy sh*t, I considered myself a fan of this movie and never noticed this, damn”.
Another responded to one person who commented with a picture of the specific frame saying: “Omg thank you. I was staring at this forever and somehow still didn't see it”.
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A third commented: “Wow holy cr*p I would NEVER have caught that”.
A fourth said: “Bravo Nolan and bravo OP”.
Memento is available to watch on Channel 4 for free.
Topics: Christopher Nolan, Film, TV and Film
Michael Slavin