Daily Dialogue — August 25, 2018
TEDDY: You know, when we found your guy and killed him. (off look) That's right, the real John G. Over a year ago. I helped you find him. He's already dead.
LEONARD: Why do you keep lying to me?
TEDDY: I'm not. I was the cop assigned to your wife's death. I believed you, I thought you deserved the chance for revenge. I helped you find the other guy who was in your bathroom that night. The guy who cracked your skull and fucked your wife. We found him and you killed him. You didn't remember, so I helped you start looking again, looking for the guy you already killed.
LEONARD: So who are you saying he was?
TEDDY: Just some guy. Does it even matter who? I stopped asking myself why a long time ago. No reason, no conspiracy; just bad fucking luck. A couple of junkies, too strung out to realize that your wife didn't live alone. When you killed him, I've never seen you so happy - I was convinced you'd remember. But it didn't stick, like nothing ever sticks. Like this won't stick.
Leonard looks at the Polaroid of himself.
TEDDY: That's the picture, right? I took that, right when you did it. Look how happy you are. Before you forgot. I wanted to see that face again.
LEONARD: (sarcastic) Thank you.
TEDDY: Fuck you; I gave you a reason to live and you were more than happy to help. You lie to yourself! You don't want the truth, the truth is a fucking coward. So you make up your own truth.
— Memento (2000), screenplay by Christopher Nolan, short story by Jonathan Nolan
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Confession.
Trivia: The film’s subject matter was conceived of when Christopher Nolan was joined by his brother Jonathan on a late summer cross-country road trip, as Christopher was moving to Los Angeles and Jonathan had time before returning to his studies at Georgetown to spend time with his brother and help with with the move. By the time they arrived in L.A., the entire screenplay had been stated out loud between the brothers.
Dialogue On Dialogue: One great way to deal with exposition? Frame it as a confession. Here, Teddy lays out the whole sordid truth for Leonard… not that it ends up doing Teddy any good!
