I know I'm a little behind, but I just watched the movie Memento and the ending got me thinking a lot. And when I think a lot I usually turn toward the internet to find the vast majority of solutions available and find the right answer. To my concern I feel that there isn't one out there for this movie that fits what I saw of it. I might be missing something, but please fill me in if you have seen the movie several times and want to correct me on how it actually ends.

(*Oh and please stop reading and watch this movie if you haven't already because it is fantastic! and ruining it by reading this would break my heart*)

The movie ends with what seems to be an open-ended question on who killed his wife, hinting that he in fact killed her. But I feel that the movie in it's entirety holds the solution. Throughout the movie Leonard explains the story of Sammy Jankis and how his illness is prone to conditional therapy.

I don't know any other way to explain it so I'll just say my theory and explain it after. Leonard is the story of Sammy Jankis, he got into a car accident, his wife couldn't believe that he was faking it or couldn't live with the fact that he wasn't so she devised the test of insulin. There was no murder, there was no rape.

**Q: WHAT? How do you explain him knowing about the incident at his house, his last memory?**

That was all conditioned. By people like Teddy taking advantage of his condition. By seeing tattoos that his wife was murdered, etc., every time he wakes up. By the reports he dismembered to cause him to want to catch someone. All these things conditioned him to believe that that is why his wife isn't with him anymore. He doesn't even have to think about it when someone asks, he just knows in his memory that she was murdered. Slightly more conclusive proof of him being Sammy that Nolan adds is when he is explaining the story of Sammy in the mental hospital, after the nurse passes by, it quickly changes to Leonard for a split second sitting in the chair instead of Sammy. Sort of like for a split second he remembered that he was actually Sammy.

**Q: But if that is true, why doesn't he remember that his wife has diabetes? That would have happened before the 'car accident' or 'murder/rape'.**

That got me for a little bit. The reason he doesn't remember it is because he's trying to piece two puzzles pieces that belong to two different puzzles. The image in his mind of his wife is convoluted with conditioned images of her being raped/murdered. All things that never actually happened. That version never had diabetes. His actual wife did. That version of his memory is stored as Sammy Jankis' wife.

So all this time, Teddy was the one assigned to the case that investigated the murder/suicide of his wife. The pieces left out were the pieces Leonard crossed out because he didn't want to know the truth. He lies to himself to make himself feel better. What's left in the report makes it appear that his wife was murdered. Teddy takes advantage of this and gets him to do things for him for personal reasons.

That's how I interpreted the ending. So my question to you, is there any evidence that the rape/murder actually did happen? Did the rape/murder actually happen or was it a car accident? Is there any proof in the movie? Please fill me in where I might be wrong because no conclusion I've read is close to mine (other than he was Sammy but she lived after the rape).