MEMENTO
Limited-Edition DVD menu-navigation guide
Download this guide as a keepcase-sized insert:
4-page colour booklet [750 KB PDF]
(v2.2: 29-May-2002)
Alternate booklet [418 KB PDF]
(alternate design courtesy of Craig Sherman)
The menu navigation on the Limited Edition DVD release of Memento is mildly confusing, to say the least. So I thought I’d post a “rough guide” to finding the various supplements and special features on the DVD.
Here’s what I’ve worked out so far (with some much-appreciated help from others). Further comments and corrections are welcomed: please mail me (using the link above) if I’ve overlooked or misstated something.
Disc One
From the main menu (above)...
- “Read”
- Select sub-title options (choose “Y” for question 3 or 4)
- “Listen”
- Select audio options (choose “Y” for appropriate format)
- “Watch”
- View the film with currently-selected audio and sub-title options
- “Chapter”
- View scene selections (note that the only selectable letter for a given chapter corresponds to the “correct” answer for the question on that chapter)
- “Comments”
- Hear director Christopher Nolan’s commentary on the film (choose “D”)
Disc One: Commentary Track
There are four (!) different endings to the commentary track on this disc.
The film is encoded as Title 1 on the disc. At the end of Chapter 13 in this title, at the 1:33:52 mark, there’s a branch point that seems to be activated only if you’re listening to the commentary track (soundtrack #4) at that moment.
If you’re listening to any of the other soundtracks (DD 5.1, DD 2.0 or DTS 5.1), your player will not branch and will continue to Chapter 14 of Title 1. If you now switch over to the commentary, it’ll play normally until the 1:37:15 mark, when it will slow down and then reverse and run backwards (fittingly) for the remainder of the film.
If, on the other hand, you’re listening to the commentary track as you cross the 1:33:52 mark, your player will switch (apparently randomly, but consistently until the disc is ejected and re-loaded) to Title 2, 3 or 4. Each of these titles contains the final three chapters of the film encoded with a subtly varying—but non-reversed—version of the commentary.
There’s a great deal of overlap between these three versions, but they differ on some key points (e.g., the Title 3 version states that Teddy is lying to Leonard at the end of the film, the Title 4 version states that Teddy is telling Leonard the truth, and the Title 2 version makes no comment on Teddy’s veracity).
(N.B.: The above branching trick works on my Panasonic RP-91 set-top player but not on my PowerDVD XP software player, meaning that with PowerDVD I can only access the reversed version. I’d be interested to hear results from owners of other players.)
(Amanda Ehrlich points out that you can also access a random non-reversed track by activating the commentary from the “Comments” menu and then jumping directly to chapter 14, 15 or 16 on the “Chapter” scene-selection menu. This method has the same limitations, though: you still can’t choose which title you get, and you still have to eject and re-load the disc to re-randomise the selection.)
Disc Two
From the main menu (above)...
- Stills/production sketches gallery
- • Select drawing compass (first row, second column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (four times)
- Journal (unadvertised feature)
- • Select drawing compass (first row, second column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (three times)
- • Click “B” or “D”
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (twice)
- Supplement menu (unadvertised feature)
- [trailers, "Anatomy of a Scene" featurette, director’s script, stills/production sketches gallery, and international poster art gallery]
- • Select clock (third row, third column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (twice)
- • Click “E” on the third screen (jigsaw puzzle)
- DVD credits (unadvertised feature)
- (corrected by Joe Schwartz on a Home Theater Forum thread)
- • Select clock (third row, third column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (four times)
- • Click “D” on the fifth screen (laughing girls)
- “Chronological” edit of film (unadvertised feature)
- (N.B.: On my Panasonic RP-91, I can’t chapter or speed forward or backward during the “chronological” edit, but I can enter timecodes and jump to them.)
- • Select clock (third row, third column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (five times)
- • Select pictures in order 3-4-1-2
- Short story “Memento Mori” by Jonathan Nolan
- (courtesy of Ultradamno A. D.’s post in alt.video.dvd)
- • Select clock (third row, third column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (five times)
- • Select pictures in order 2-1-4-3
- Director’s script
- • Select book (second row, fourth column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (twice)
- • Use <Angle> button to switch between script and film
- “Anatomy of a Scene” featurette
- • Select skull (fourth row, fifth column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (thrice)
- Bootleg cover art (unadvertised feature)
- (courtesy of Claes Källarsson)
- • Select skull (fourth row, fifth column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (twice)
- • Click “E” on the third screen (missing pieces/objects question)
- • Click “D” on the fourth screen (“report friend to the police” question)
- International poster art gallery
- • Select globe (first row, fifth column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (four times)
- Props gallery (unadvertised feature)
- • Select binoculars (first row, sixth column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C”
- • Click “D” on the second screen (book)
- Trailers (US and international)
- • Select binoculars (first row, sixth column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (five times)
- Concept art gallery (unadvertised feature)
- • Select binoculars (first row, sixth column)
- • Press <Enter> or click “C” (four times)
- • Click “B” or “D”
- • Click “A” on the sixth screen (woman with paper)
In addition to navigating straight through the stack of cards under each “active” object (as above), you can also cross-navigate on the “ring” of cards which connects all six stacks. The “ring” card in each stack is the one that has additional cards visible to the left and right as it comes up to fill the screen.
From a “ring” card, clicking “A” moves you counter-clockwise through the ring: clicking “E” moves you clockwise. Every third card—denoted by sound clips—is the “ring” card from a new stack: from here, clicking “B” or “D” takes you forward through the new stack, while clicking “C” triggers one of the special features:
- Story about twins (Jim and John)
- Director’s script
- Missing pieces/objects
- “Anatomy of a Scene” featurette
- Light bulbs/switches puzzle
- Trailers (US and international)
- Matching five pictures of woman
- International poster art gallery
- Woman with mirror/“escape”
- Stills/production sketches gallery
- Woman changing car tire
- “Chronological” edit of film (choose pictures in order 3-4-1-2)
or
“Memento Mori” short story (choose pictures in order 2-1-4-3)
(N.B.: From the tire-changing screen, you can only go left or right by choosing pictures in an “incorrect” order. Any choice starting with the first picture [i.e., 1xxx] will take you to the right, most choices starting with the second or third picture [2xxx or 3xxx, except 2143 and 3412] will take you left. Starting with the fourth picture [4xxx] takes you “forward” in the stack and off the “ring.”)
This page and all contents ©2002, 2012 Douglas Bailey, except alternate booklet design ©2002 Craig Sherman and screen-captures ©2002 Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment. Use of these screenshots is for informative purposes only. No challenge to Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment’s copyright is intended or should be inferred.