This is all going off the idea that <PERSON> was a real person and not a projection of <PERSON>’s. Your question: “How did <PERSON> manage to distort his memory of <PERSON>?” This is sort of a theme throughout the whole movie...that memories are unreliable and cannot be trusted (especially in <PERSON>’s case) The “memory” of <PERSON> isn’t a memory at all, it’s a story that <PERSON> created to ease the guilt and pain of knowing that he actually killed his wife. Therefore he can distort it however he wants since he created it. If you look closely at the scene where <PERSON> is on the phone talking about <PERSON>, it will show <PERSON> sitting in a chair in the hospital, just as someone passes by the cameras view it will actually show <PERSON> himself sitting in the chair, not <PERSON>. (around 130:00 minutes). This concludes that <PERSON> and <PERSON> are actually one in the same. <PERSON> created the story about <PERSON> to “condition” himself into forgetting he was the one who actually killed his wife from insulin injections. The tattoo “remember <PERSON>” is <PERSON>’s trigger for himself. 861
During the closing scene <PERSON> ask <PERSON> what happened to the 12 missing pages of the file. Those 12 pages included all the facts I just stated, that <PERSON> was actually the one who killed his own wife. <PERSON> destroys these pages (and won’t remeber doing it) so that he can create this perpetual scavenger hunt for “<PERSON>” the man who <PERSON> has conditioned himself into thinking actually killed his wife. (Which fits perfect into <PERSON>’s actual memories of his wife, her laying on the bathroom floor with plastic over her head) This continuous hunt for “<PERSON>” gives purpose to <PERSON>’s life, a life of 5 minutes at a time. The film opens with <PERSON> killing <PERSON>, at the end when <PERSON> writes down “fact 6” and puts down <PERSON>’s license plate number, in that moment he is putting <PERSON>’s death in motion, as he will hunt <PERSON> thinking that he is “<PERSON>”. The scene with <PERSON> and his wife in bed, and the tattoo on his chest “ I have done it” can be seen, is another case where it isn’t a memory. He wouldn’t have the ability to remeber that event as it would have taken place after the attack had happened which created his memory loss. So many years later and the movie is still talked about and awesome to rewatch. <PERSON> at his finest. 861