2000. Black and white runs forwards, colour runs backwards, and they meet at a motel in Tujunga. The motel is real, and so is the road it stands on.
7254 Foothill Boulevard at Hillhaven Avenue, Tujunga
The Travel Inn plays the Discount Inn, the motel where Leonard holes up. There is no real Discount Inn.
It was repainted for the film and used for Leonard’s and Dodd’s rooms as well as the front of the Discount Inn.
Burt, the clerk, has Leonard paying for two rooms at once, 21 and 304.
A roadside motel building on Foothill Boulevard. Look from the pavement; Film Oblivion found the area run down and advises care.
Burt rents Leonard two rooms at once. Tap what differs between them.
Found 0 of 3 differences.
Drawn for this page, not to scale. The Interiors analysis says only that Room 21 has two beds and Room 304 one, and that their wall lights and headboards are slightly different.
Room 21 has two beds and Room 304 one; the wall lights and headboards differ slightly.
Interiors: Memento, the motel rooms (film and floor-plan analysis)
Forwards and backwards
The film’s black-and-white scenes run in order and its colour scenes run in reverse; Andy Klein numbered them 1 to 22 and A to V, and the film ends where 22 turns into A. Here the making runs forwards in grey, the film’s life runs backwards in colour, and one button moves both.
Black-and-white scenes run forwards, colour scenes backwards; Andy Klein numbers them 1–22 and A–V, and the film ends as 22 becomes A.
Both strands are waiting: 7 cards each.
Black and white · the making · forwards →
Starts July 1996, on a road trip.
7 steps to the meeting point
← Colour · the film’s life · backwards
Starts on Oscar night, 2002.
Tujunga · Sunland
Most of the film’s Valley is one road under the San Gabriel Mountains. The motel and the Sunland pair are 2.2 km apart; the postcards show the motel’s block before the war.
7254 Foothill Boulevard: The Travel Inn: the Discount Inn.
7254 Foothill Boulevard · The Travel Inn, Tujunga
The Travel Inn plays the Discount Inn, the motel where Leonard holes up. There is no real Discount Inn.
It was repainted for the film and used for Leonard’s and Dodd’s rooms as well as the front of the Discount Inn.
Burt, the clerk, has Leonard paying for two rooms at once, 21 and 304.
A roadside motel building on Foothill Boulevard. Look from the pavement; Film Oblivion found the area run down and advises care.
Burbank · North Hills · Altadena
916 South San Fernando Boulevard at Alameda Avenue, Burbank
The Blue Room plays Ferdy’s Bar, where Natalie works.
Natalie serves Leonard a beer she has spat in, to see whether he will remember.
It is still a bar, with turquoise booths and an old jukebox.
A working neighbourhood bar in downtown Burbank. Ring (323) 849-2779 before you go.
322 North Pass Avenue, Burbank
A AAA Four Diamond hotel round the corner from Warner Bros. Studios, with a pool, the FYC Bar + Kitchen and valet parking in an underground garage ($50 a night). A short drive to the Blue Room and up to Foothill Boulevard. The photograph is San Fernando Road nearby, not the hotel.
See the hotel
East Magnolia Boulevard, Burbank · private, not mapped
Natalie’s house was in Burbank.
Here Natalie talks Leonard into believing that Dodd has hurt her. The house has since been renovated a little.
A private home. It is named here and not mapped; please leave the people who live there alone.
9111 Sepulveda Boulevard, North Hills
It plays the Mountcrest Inn, where Leonard catches up with Dodd.
OpenStreetMap still names it the Hill Crest Inn.
A motel on Sepulveda Boulevard. See the front from the street.
Highland Avenue, Altadena · private, not mapped
Sammy Jankis’s house was a suburban home near Pasadena.
Two neighbouring houses on Highland Avenue in Altadena played Sammy’s home and Leonard’s old home. Both were still standing after the wildfires that destroyed many houses around them.
Two private homes on a residential street. Named, not mapped.
The location they could not use
The plan had been a Spanish-style brick warehouse owned by a train company, until dozens of carriages were parked outside it. An oil refinery near Long Beach was used instead.
The refinery gave the film its first and last scenes, and the place where Leonard burns his wife’s things.
The refinery has since been demolished.
The refinery is gone. South Main Street runs past where it stood.
As themselves
Carrie-Anne Moss a fortnight before filming began, and Christopher Nolan a few years on. No free photographs of the others from 1999 or 2000 have turned up, so each says when it was taken.
A 25-day shoot from 7 September to 8 October 1999 on a $4.5 million budget; about $40 million worldwide; 22 black-and-white and 22 colour sequences.
6801 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
The 74th Academy Awards were held here on 24 March 2002, the theatre’s first Oscars.
Memento was nominated for its original screenplay (Christopher and Jonathan Nolan) and for Dody Dorn’s editing. Gosford Park and Black Hawk Down won.
It opened on 9 November 2001 as the Kodak Theatre and has been the Dolby Theatre since 1 May 2012.
11 places you can visit or see from the street, from Foothill Boulevard to Venice; two private homes are named but not mapped.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A roadside motel building on Foothill Boulevard. Look from the pavement; Film Oblivion found the area run down and advises care.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A residential mobile-home park where people live. See the entrance from Foothill Boulevard and stay outside.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A shopfront building on Foothill Boulevard, seen from the pavement.
7254 Foothill Boulevard at Hillhaven Avenue, Tujunga
The Travel Inn plays the Discount Inn, the motel where Leonard holes up. There is no real Discount Inn.
A roadside motel building on Foothill Boulevard. Look from the pavement; Film Oblivion found the area run down and advises care.
8100 Foothill Boulevard, Sunland
Leonard plays cat and mouse with Dodd among the motor homes here.
A residential mobile-home park where people live. See the entrance from Foothill Boulevard and stay outside.
8119 Foothill Boulevard at Mather Avenue, Sunland
Once Hatti-Kay Coiffures, it became Emma’s Tattoo for the film.
A shopfront building on Foothill Boulevard, seen from the pavement.
Stay
A hotel near the studios, a short drive from the Blue Room and Foothill Boulevard.
322 North Pass Avenue, Burbank
A AAA Four Diamond hotel round the corner from Warner Bros. Studios, with a pool, the FYC Bar + Kitchen and valet parking in an underground garage ($50 a night). A short drive to the Blue Room and up to Foothill Boulevard. The photograph is San Fernando Road nearby, not the hotel.
See the hotelGo there
Marketplace film-location and studio tours; none is built round this film.
Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for film-location tours of Los Angeles. None is built round Memento; check each itinerary for Burbank and Hollywood Boulevard.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursBurbank
Live marketplace results for studio tours in Burbank, the town where Ferdy’s Bar and Natalie’s house were filmed.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
The 99th Academy Awards in March 2027.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
The screenplay with Following, and James Mottram’s book on the film.
Christopher Nolan · Faber and Faber
The screenplay of Memento with Nolan’s first feature, Following, published by Faber and Faber in 2001.
Find the bookJames Mottram · Faber and Faber
James Mottram’s book on how the film was made, published by Faber and Faber in 2002.
Find the bookDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
13 of 13 places · 14 of 14 Moments
7254 Foothill Boulevard at Hillhaven Avenue, Tujunga
The repainted Travel Inn plays the Discount Inn, Leonard’s motel, inside and out.
The clerk has Leonard paying for Room 21 and Room 304; one has two beds, the other one.
8100 Foothill Boulevard, Sunland
Leonard plays cat and mouse with Dodd around the motor homes.
8119 Foothill Boulevard at Mather Avenue, Sunland
A former hair salon becomes Emma’s Tattoo, where Fact No. 6 is inked.
916 South San Fernando Boulevard at Alameda Avenue, Burbank
Natalie serves Leonard a beer she has spat in, to test his memory.
East Magnolia Boulevard, Burbank
Natalie talks Leonard into believing Dodd has hurt her.
9111 Sepulveda Boulevard, North Hills
Leonard catches up with Dodd at the Mountcrest Inn.
Highland Avenue, Altadena
Two neighbouring houses play Sammy’s home and Leonard’s old home.
South Main Street, Carson
The refinery replaces a warehouse blocked by parked train carriages and gives the film its first and last scenes.
6801 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
Two nominations, screenplay and editing, at the theatre’s first Oscars.
Beside the ocean, Santa Monica
Best Feature, Director, Screenplay and Supporting Female in Santa Monica.
Lungomare Guglielmo Marconi, Lido, Venice, Italy
First shown at Venice on 5 September 2000, to a standing ovation.
328 Main Street, Park City, Utah
The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance, January 2001.
Georgetown University, Washington, DC
The killer’s name nods to Jonathan Nolan’s Georgetown screenwriting professor.
