In 2000, actor Guy Pearce appeared in a film that would push his star power beyond that which he garnered with his role in 1997's critical darling "L.A. Confidential" and confuse the hell out of pretty much everyone who watched it: "Memento," the second feature film by director Christopher Nolan. Pearce took on the role of Leonard Shelby — a man suffering from anterograde amnesia (the inability to form new memories) and searching for the person who killed his wife but destined to revert to factory settings a few times an hour — in this time-jumping psychological thriller. Leonard's dedication to his cause is the stuff of legend, with a system of tracking information as permanent as having clues tattooed on his body and as fallible as taking Polaroid photographs and writing down the answers he may or may not have found on the backs of them.

Pearce received a nomination for the 2002 Saturn Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the fractured, grief-stricken vigilante, among myriad other similar critics society nominations. Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano — fresh off of collaborating on 1999's "The Matrix" — took on the supporting roles of shady characters Natalie and Teddy, respectively. "Memento" received nominations for two Academy Awards — Best Editing and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen — in addition to a nod for Best Motion Picture Screenplay at the Golden Globes. Christopher Nolan won Screenwriter of the Year at the American Film Institute awards. Despite the praise for the movie's intricate, nonlinear story, Pearce didn't have the easiest time with the script. "The thing was that even though on some level it felt like gobbledegook as I was reading it, because you got the sense that things were all over the place, what I really got and what was really clear was the emotional journey of the character," he told GQ in 2020.