IS IT BOLLOCKS?

Film Buff investigates the facts behind outlandish movie plots.

Did Nolan get the amnesia science right in Memento?

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In Christopher Nolan’s 2000 thriller, an insurance investigator (Guy Pearce) with anterograde amnesia uses photos and tattoos to solve his wife’s murder. Does Nolan do the science justice?

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DR. SALLIE BAXENDALE, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

Anterograde amnesia is a real medical condition. In AA, an individual remembers everything stored in their memory prior to the onset of the condition, but they are unable to make new long-term memories, trapping them in a perpetual ‘present’. The inability to store new memories results from the destruction of a part of the brain called the hippocampus. We have two hippocampi on each side of the brain. If they are both destroyed, our ability to make new memories is lost. One of the most famous cases of anterograde amnesia reported is from 1953, when 27-year-old Canadian Henry Molaison underwent an experimental brain operation to cure his epilepsy. Henry’s surgeon removed both his hippocampi, which successfully treated Henry’s seizures, but resulted in a profound anterograde amnesia that persisted for the rest of his life. Memento was inspired by Henry and the filmmakers incorporated many aspects of his condition into the film.

Memento gets an awful lot right in the portrayal of AA. The film is beautifully structured to repeatedly place the viewer in Pearce’s predicament. At the start of each scene, we are as much in the dark as he is as to what has just happened. Sadly, in real life, this condition has a catastrophic impact on a person’s ability to live independently and complete basic everyday tasks without assistance. Most people require 24-hour care and (spoiler alert) would not be able to solve a complex crime… even with the aid of tattoos, a polaroid camera and a Sharpie.