“Memento” follows Leonard Shelby, a man with short term memory loss, through the journey of identifying his wife’s killer. At the end, the film reveals how Leonard killed his wife and is in denial about the information. Leonard was enlightened with this information by a policeman named John G., who is murdered by Leonard during the course of the film. Confirmation bias is utilized throughout the film, resulting in memories being falsely construed and proving written notes are just as corrupt as mental memories. Confirmation bias is the predisposition to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions, often leading to errors. Leonard’s clue to finding his wife’s killer is tattooed on his arm: the killer is a …show more content…
His transcriptions about his wife’s killer were therefore fabricated because he was seeking information surrounding the murder, failing to realize he was the killer all along. One of Leonard’s notes was about a man named Sammy Jankis and his wife. He portrayed Sammy as the person who killed his wife in the same manner Leonard’s wife died. Leonard was actually the man that he describes as Sammy, and he chose not to remember the truth by having “Remember Sammy Jankis” tattooed onto his wrist, further engraving this idea in his mind. With Leonard believing his wife’s murder is still a mystery, he is able to continue seeking his revenge. Most of Leonard’s tattoos and notes resulted from false information and events, arguing that written notes are just as unsuccessful as memory is at recalling factual information. His daily life consisted of him applying confirmation bias as if he was viewing life through a lens, failing to retrieve all of the information from his experiences. Leonard’s written memory was impacted by his costly mistakes, and he eventually murdered an innocent man because of his