Synopsis:

Leonard Shelby can't make new memories. He can remember everything up until the night that his wife was murdered, but everything that happens after fades within a few minutes. Ever since that night, Leonard has been searching for the man that killed his wife, John G. Leonard wakes up in a motel room and receives a phone call. 5 hours later, Leonard pulls up to a tattoo parlor with information that could enable him to finally track down John G and get revenge. The two plotlines proceed chronologically in parallel until they both culminate in a shocking conclusion.

Intentions:

This is an attempt to make a version of the movie that moves forward chronologically while still working as a narrative and standing on its own. Intercutting between the black and white and color plotlines allows the story to have suspense over what's going to happen next, while still maintaining the mystery of how and why this is happening. Some additional cuts and modifications have been made to make the story and pacing work with the new structure.

Change List:

The color segments have been resequenced in chronological order, intercut with the black and white segments. In many cases, multiple segments that were separate in the theatrical cut have been stitched together to improve pacing and flow. The fades from and to black at the beginning and end, respectively, of each of the theatrical cut's black and white segments have been removed, so that the movie now has straight cuts between the black and white and color plotlines, and to help stitch some black and white segments together. The theatrical cut's final color segment has been changed to black and white to provide a conlusion to the edit's black and white plotline, while the edit's color plotline begins with the theatrical cut's second to last color segment, starting with Leonard pulling up to a tattoo parlor with a note that says, "Tattoo: Fact Car License SG13 7IU". Additional Changes: - Created a new opening credits sequence, with glimpses of Leonard's long term memories in the background. - Added "5 HOURS LATER" card when Leonard pulls up to the tatto parlor in what is now the first color segment. - Used VFX to remove "6" from Leonard's note to "Tattoo: Fact 6," to fix plot hole where Leonard hadn't looked at his tattoos to see how many facts he had already tattooed on himself when he wrote that note. - Cut "Giving you a load of crap about John G being some local drug dealer, Jimmy Grantz." from Teddy in the tattoo parlor. Since this scene is now near the beginning of the movie, what was part of a series of escalating hints in the theatrical cut would now be too obvious this early on. - Cut Leonard meeting Natalie outside the bar and Natalie mistaking him for Jimmy, ditto. - Cut "Your pocket?" from Natalie in the bar, ditto. - Cut Leonard hanging up the phone and getting called back in the black and white plotline, to make it flow better. - Cut Leonard picking the wrong room and accidentally knocking some random guy out at Dodd's motel. This keeps the pace up, removes some plot questions (wouldn't the guy call the police or something after he woke up?) and I also was never very comfortable with the movie playing something like this for laughs. - Cut "But they weren't even looking for John G. The stuff they found in the car just fit it with what they believed had happened, so they didn't chase any of it up." from Leonard, in order to better stitch two black and white segments together. - Cut Natalie asking Leonard to tell her about his wife at the diner. Now that this scene is late in the movie, this would just slow the pacing down unnecessarily. - As Leonard is preparing to leave his room in the black and white plotline, remove "So this Jimmy Grantz deals drugs out of the bar where his girlfriend works? But he's not going to bring her along, he'll come by himself, right? I always figured the drugs angle to be the best way to get him." from Leonard, to maintain a bit of mystery until Jimmy shows up at the derelict building. - Trimmed exposition about Leonard's condition when he talks to Burt in the motel lobby. In the theatrical cut, this was early and necessary exposition about Leonard's condition. In the new sequencing, it's just repeating things that the viewer already knows. - Reversed backwards footage from the opening of the theatrical cut to show Leonard shooting Teddy and then taking a picture of the body. - Used VFX to remove "6" from Leonard's note to "Tattoo: Fact 6" as he writes it, to fix plot hole and maintain continuity with the beginning of the edit. - After Leonard takes a picture of Teddy's body, the movie cuts to Leonard driving away from the derelict building, using footage from the ending of the theatrical cut. This is in color, so it takes place after Leonard shot Teddy. To maintain continuity, some shots are cropped so that the intact driver's side window of the car isn't visible. The part where Leonard stops in front of the tattoo parlor is removed, and instead it cuts to credits as Leonard is driving along and looks at something up ahead, with his narration saying, "Now, where was I?" - Inserted Fan Edit credits into the end credits. - Added "Parallel Cut" to the title card at the end of the credits.

Additional Notes:

Editing Software: Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Audacity, Sony DVD Architect Pro.

Special Thanks:

My previewers, That One Guy, Wilheim Scream, and Heavyside. It'sOnRandom, for helping with the cover art.