Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind is INCREDIBLE

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:02][music] A movie's twist, in my opinion, is what distinguishes good movies from great ones. Fight Club, Interstellar helped Star Wars Episode 5 sort of revolutionize the idea itself.

[00:00:17]Coincidentally, I watched all of those movies for the first time with my dad. I think a movie with one of the best twists in my opinion is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. a movie that I funny enough also watched with my [music] dad. The movie stars Jim Carrey as Joel and Kate Winslet as Clementine.

[00:00:39]One day Joel, a quiet Tim and man, spontaneously [music] decides to skip work and go to the beach in Montalk. There he meets Clementine and an almost polar opposite of Joel and the two talk on the train, [music] later drive home to Joel's house and spend the night together. And in just one night, they have fallen in love. They then drive back over to Clementine's house to pick up her stuff when something strange happens. Patrick, played by Elijah Wood, comes up to Joel's window and asks him, >> "Yeah, >> can I help you?"

[00:01:20]>> You mean, >> "Can I help you with something?

[00:01:28]What are you doing here?

[00:01:30]>> I'm not really sure what you're asking me.

[00:01:33]>> Oh, thanks.

[00:01:44]The screen goes black and then we have a flash forward to Joel crying in the car.

[00:01:52]We learned that Clementine and Joel's relationship dwindled off. And rather than just doing a breakup or ghosting, Clementine went to a doctor that could erase Joel from her memory permanently.

[00:02:07]Joel finds this out and is utterly shocked. He has no clue what he's going to do. So, he decides he's going to erase her from his memory, too.

[00:02:20]But just as the procedure is starting while he's asleep, he has second thoughts.

[00:02:26]And the majority of the movie takes place within Joel's mind, where he essentially tries to do everything in his power to hide Clementine [music] within his memory away from the lasers that are literally erasing her.

[00:02:40]Okay, before I continue, I'd like to preface that I'm about to spoil the entire movie, so just be warned.

[00:02:48]Unfortunately, Joel can't stop Clementine from getting erased. She's gone and there's nothing we can do. Joel wakes up in bed like nothing ever happened.

[00:03:02]But here's the twist.

[00:03:05]That's not the actual order of the movie.

[00:03:09]Yes, we watch it in that order, but in reality, the beginning of Eternal Sunshine is actually the events that happen after the eraser in which they [music] actually fall back in love by pure coincidence.

[00:03:24]Then, a rogue specialist leaks all the information that they erased each other, and they realize they've been in love before and things didn't work out.

[00:03:34]They're faced with the question, run from all of their problems or actually try again and accept that they can rewrite their own story.

[00:03:44]And it's wrapped up in this really beautiful and emotional scene where the audience is faced with a question. Can they change the inevitable?

[00:03:54]But that's not what I'm here to talk about. Or not that exactly. I'm here to talk about what leads up to the twist itself. You see the director Michael Gondley Mel Mitchell Gondry Michael Gundrew. Michael Jackson >> Michelle Gundry.

[00:04:16]>> Okay, that guy is kind of a genius. The entire time the twist is right in front of us. He hides it in subtle but after a second watch sort of obvious references to the fact that something is not right and that this isn't the same story that we saw in the beginning.

[00:04:37]Essentially the movie misleads the audience with the two timelines that are interchanged pre-erasure and post. The way to differentiate is semi simple if you know what to look for. Clementine's hair color. When Clementine has orange or sometimes green hair, it's before any of the eraser has happened and it is truly the first time they've met. But when she has blue hair, it's after they have both erased [music] each other. But the movie isn't framed in that order, so we don't actually take significant note of it. Now, this doesn't exactly spoil the entire twist, but it gives us an easy way to track at what point in time is being referenced.

[00:05:21]So, let's see the key ways that the twist is actually alluded to.

[00:05:26]Number one, how they meet.

[00:05:30]So, this is basically about why Joel goes to the beach in the first place. in the blue hair timeline. It's just because he has a feeling that he needs to go to Montalk.

[00:05:54]He just has a feeling. He goes to the beach, sees Clementine. They lock eyes, sort of wave at each other, and then go on with their days.

[00:06:04]They then are sat across from each other on the train ride home and make [music] more small talk. That's how they meet and it's a clear image put into everyone's mind when you're watching a movie.

[00:06:17]But in the orange hair timeline, they meet at a party still on the beach in Montalk, but this time there are tons of people around and they start talking while sitting on the stairs to [music] a house.

[00:06:31]Number two, the dates of their letters.

[00:06:35]In the blue hair timeline, Joel and Clementine meet in 2004.

[00:06:40]Random thoughts for Valentine's Day, 2004.

[00:06:45]>> But in all of his love letters addressed to her, they are addressed as exactly 2003.

[00:06:52]>> November 19th, 2003.

[00:06:57]Dinner at Kangs. Again, this subtle detail makes it really difficult to notice that there is a difference between the blue hair and the orange hair timeline because our brain keeps telling us that we're imagining these little discrepancies between the beginning and the rest of the movie.

[00:07:13]Three, the poetic illusions. Like, do I know you?

[00:07:23]>> Do you ever shop at Barnes & Noble?

[00:07:25]>> Sure.

[00:07:26]>> That's it. Yeah, >> I've seen you, man. Book slave there for like [music] 5 years now.

[00:07:34]>> Now, what's interesting about this is that it begs the question if the eraser even fully worked. I mean, you can get rid of the memories that are just one-on-one between the two people, but what happens where there are interactions that are not just between the two of you? Do you forget those, too? This helps allude to the whole deja vu feeling, and it's the same for the audience.

[00:07:57]Basically, what this all works up to is that the audience is purposely misled.

[00:08:02]Our brains tell us something isn't right, but we don't have enough information to actually piece it together. And rather, we assume that we're simply mistaken. Like during the house scene where Clementine and Joel basically break into a house on the beach out of pure curiosity.

[00:08:20]When I was watching this for the first time, I was so confused because I had no memory of it. And the entire time I was just telling myself that I was either imagining things or that it had in fact happened in the movie and that it just happened offcreen. All of these scenes create a feeling of something not being right, that something is off. We don't know what it is and neither do Clementine and Joel.

[00:08:45]And when we do find out, it's like a bullet in [music] the heart.

[00:08:49]Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind took me for a ride because I didn't expect it. I don't think anyone can expect it. I never think I've cried more during the end of a movie. And I came out of it feeling like a changed person.

[00:09:04]And I'll say this, it is by far the best Jim Carrey movie. Fight me.

[00:09:13][music] >> [music] >> All right, I think that was