The 2000 independent film starring Guy Pearce that is told in reverse chronological order is Memento. Christopher Nolan’s psychological thriller follows Leonard Shelby, a man with anterograde amnesia who cannot form new long-term memories after a violent attack.
Memento uses two intertwined timelines. Its color sequences move backward through the story, while its black-and-white scenes proceed chronologically. The structure deliberately places viewers in Leonard’s disoriented perspective, forcing them to reconstruct events from photographs, handwritten notes, and tattoos just as he does.
The film was based on “Memento Mori,” a short story by Nolan’s brother Jonathan Nolan. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 and later earned Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing. A common mix-up is calling the entire movie simply “backward”: the black-and-white timeline runs forward, while the color narrative is presented in reverse.