Movies about Loss of Memory or Amnesia
by reh3959 | created - 18 May 2011 | updated - 22 Nov 2015 | PublicThese are movie where memory loss feature prominently. Let me know if I missed any.
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1. 50 First Dates (2004)
PG-13 | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Henry Roth is a man afraid of commitment until he meets the beautiful Lucy. They hit it off and Henry think he's finally found the girl of his dreams until discovering she has short-term memory loss and forgets him the next day.
Director: Peter Segal | Stars: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Sean Astin
Votes: 381,578 | Gross: $120.91M
2. Amnesiac (2014)
TV-MA | 90 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A misery-esque tale of a man who wakes up in bed after an accident, suffering from memory loss. He begins to suspect that his wife isn't really his real wife and soon finds himself a prisoner in the house.
Director: Michael Polish | Stars: Kate Bosworth, Wes Bentley, Olivia Rose Keegan, Shashawnee Hall
Votes: 3,915
3. Angel Eyes (2001)
R | 102 min | Drama, Romance
A mysterious man is drawn to a feisty female police officer and an unusual relationship ensues, as not everything is as it seems.
Director: Luis Mandoki | Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Jim Caviezel, Jeremy Sisto, Terrence Howard
Votes: 25,689 | Gross: $24.04M
4. Away from Her (2006)
PG-13 | 110 min | Drama
A man coping with the institutionalization of his wife because of Alzheimer's disease faces an epiphany when she transfers her affections to another man, Aubrey, a wheelchair-bound mute who also is a patient at the nursing home.
Director: Sarah Polley | Stars: Julie Christie, Michael Murphy, Gordon Pinsent, Stacey LaBerge
Votes: 23,062 | Gross: $4.57M
5. Before I Go to Sleep (2014)
R | 92 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A woman wakes up every day, remembering nothing as a result of a traumatic accident in her past. One day, new terrifying truths emerge that force her to question everyone around her.
Director: Rowan Joffe | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Anne-Marie Duff
Votes: 84,093 | Gross: $2.96M
6. The Bourne Identity (2002)
PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
A man is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and suffering from amnesia, before racing to elude assassins and attempting to regain his memory.
Director: Doug Liman | Stars: Franka Potente, Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen
Votes: 575,691 | Gross: $121.66M
7. The Butterfly Effect (2004)
R | 113 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Evan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.
Directors: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber | Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters, Elden Henson
Votes: 520,563 | Gross: $57.94M
8. Clean Slate (1994)
PG-13 | 107 min | Comedy, Mystery
A private eye who suffers total amnesia every twenty-four hours is deeply entangled in a complicated murder and theft case.
Director: Mick Jackson | Stars: Dana Carvey, Valeria Golino, James Earl Jones, Kevin Pollak
Votes: 4,168 | Gross: $7.50M
9. Comfort and Joy (2003 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 85 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The life of Jane Berry was all materialist, until one Christmas Eve, she is involved in a car accident that changes her life forever. She wakes up to discover she is the mother of two, a ... See full summary »
Director: Maggie Greenwald | Stars: Nancy McKeon, Steven Eckholdt, Paul Dooley, Andrew Chalmers
Votes: 1,050
10. Dark City (1998)
R | 100 min | Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A man struggles with memories of his past, which include a wife he cannot remember and a nightmarish world no one else ever seems to wake up from.
Director: Alex Proyas | Stars: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt
Votes: 212,041 | Gross: $14.38M
11. D.A.R.Y.L. (1985)
PG | 99 min | Family, Sci-Fi
A seemingly normal young boy is found abandoned on a mountain road and adopted by a family who are increasingly amazed by his abilities before discovering the secret behind his real identity.
Director: Simon Wincer | Stars: Mary Beth Hurt, Michael McKean, Kathryn Walker, Colleen Camp
Votes: 14,074 | Gross: $7.84M
12. Dream House (2011)
PG-13 | 92 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Soon after moving into their seemingly idyllic new home, a family learns of a brutal crime committed against former residents of the dwelling.
Director: Jim Sheridan | Stars: Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Elias Koteas
Votes: 69,113 | Gross: $21.28M
13. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
R | 108 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever.
Director: Michel Gondry | Stars: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Gerry Robert Byrne
Votes: 1,076,553 | Gross: $34.40M
14. Finding Nemo (2003)
G | 100 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
After his son is captured in the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney, a timid clownfish sets out on a journey to bring him home.
Directors: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich | Stars: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe
Votes: 1,111,832 | Gross: $380.84M
Dori has severe short term memory loss
15. The Forgotten (2004)
PG-13 | 91 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After being told that their children never existed, a man and woman soon discover there is a much bigger enemy at work.
Director: Joseph Ruben | Stars: Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Christopher Kovaleski, Matthew Pleszewicz
Votes: 68,322 | Gross: $66.64M
16. Hancock (2008)
PG-13 | 92 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
Hancock is a superhero whose ill-considered behavior regularly causes damage in the millions. He changes when the person he saves helps him improve his public image.
Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Jae Head
Votes: 511,150 | Gross: $227.95M
17. The Hangover (2009)
R | 100 min | Comedy
Three buddies wake up from a bachelor party in Las Vegas, with no memory of the previous night and the bachelor missing. They make their way around the city in order to find their friend before his wedding.
Director: Todd Phillips | Stars: Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Ed Helms
Votes: 844,482 | Gross: $277.32M
18. The I Inside (2004)
R | 90 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
An amnesiac discovers himself leaping through time between 2000 and 2002 as his past returns to him.
Director: Roland Suso Richter | Stars: Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Polley, Piper Perabo, Robert Sean Leonard
Votes: 11,380
19. Inception (2010)
PG-13 | 148 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe
Votes: 2,546,730 | Gross: $292.58M
OK - this one isn't so much loss of memory as implanting a memory
20. The Island (2005)
PG-13 | 136 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A man living in a futuristic sterile colony begins to question his circumscribed existence when his friend is chosen to go to the Island, the last uncontaminated place on earth.
Director: Michael Bay | Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Ewan McGregor, Djimon Hounsou, Steve Buscemi
Votes: 327,428 | Gross: $35.82M
a little thin perhaps but if you've seen it you'll get the memory connection.
21. Lovely, Still (2008)
PG | 92 min | Drama, Romance
A holiday fable that tells the story of an elderly man discovering love for the first time.
Director: Nik Fackler | Stars: Martin Landau, Ellen Burstyn, Elizabeth Banks, Adam Scott
Votes: 2,379 | Gross: $0.12M
22. The Majestic (2001)
PG | 152 min | Drama, Romance
In 1951, a blacklisted Hollywood writer gets into a car accident, loses his memory and settles down in a small town where he is mistaken for a long-lost son.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Bob Balaban, Jeffrey DeMunn
Votes: 57,610 | Gross: $27.81M
23. The Maze Runner (2014)
PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Thomas is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they're all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow "runners" for a shot at escape.
Director: Wes Ball | Stars: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter, Thomas Brodie-Sangster
Votes: 508,334 | Gross: $102.43M
24. Memento (2000)
R | 113 min | Mystery, Thriller
A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior
Votes: 1,321,300 | Gross: $25.54M
25. Men in Black (1997)
PG-13 | 98 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
James, an NYC cop, is hired by Agent K of a secret government agency that monitors extraterrestrial life on Earth. Together, they must recover an item that has been stolen by an intergalactic villain.
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D'Onofrio
Votes: 612,114 | Gross: $250.69M
26. Moon (2009)
R | 97 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.
Director: Duncan Jones | Stars: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott, Rosie Shaw
Votes: 376,375 | Gross: $5.01M
27. Mulholland Drive (2001)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 383,310 | Gross: $7.22M
28. The Music Never Stopped (2011)
PG | 105 min | Drama, Music
Tale of a father who struggles to bond with his estranged son Gabriel, after Gabriel suffers from a brain tumor that prevents him from forming new memories. With Gabriel unable to shed the ... See full summary »
Director: Jim Kohlberg | Stars: Lou Taylor Pucci, J.K. Simmons, Julia Ormond, Cara Seymour
Votes: 8,686 | Gross: $0.26M
29. The Notebook (2004)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama, Romance
An elderly man reads to a woman with dementia the story of two young lovers whose romance is threatened by the difference in their respective social classes.
Director: Nick Cassavetes | Stars: Gena Rowlands, James Garner, Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling
Votes: 619,208 | Gross: $81.00M
30. The Number 23 (2007)
R | 98 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston
Votes: 212,456 | Gross: $35.19M
31. Open Grave (2013)
Unrated | 102 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A man wakes up with no memory in a pit full of dead bodies in the wilderness and must determine if the murderer is one of the strangers who rescued him, or if he himself is the killer.
Director: Gonzalo LĂłpez-Gallego | Stars: Sharlto Copley, Thomas Kretschmann, Josie Ho, Joseph Morgan
Votes: 31,317
32. Overboard (1987)
PG | 112 min | Comedy, Romance
A cruel but beautiful heiress mocks and cheats a hired carpenter. When she gets amnesia after an accident, he decides to introduce her to regular life by convincing her that they're husband and wife.
Director: Garry Marshall | Stars: Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Edward Herrmann, Katherine Helmond
Votes: 67,747 | Gross: $26.71M
33. Pandorum (2009)
R | 108 min | Action, Horror, Mystery
Two crew members of a spaceship wake up from hypersleep to discover that all their colleagues are missing. Despite this, it appears that they are not alone.
Director: Christian Alvart | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet, Antje Traue
Votes: 159,398 | Gross: $10.33M
34. Passengers (2008)
PG-13 | 93 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A grief counselor working with a group of plane-crash survivors finds herself at the root of a mystery when her clients begin to disappear.
Director: Rodrigo GarcĂa | Stars: Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, David Morse, Andre Braugher
Votes: 39,230 | Gross: $0.27M
35. Paycheck (2003)
PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
What seemed like a breezy idea that would net an engineer millions of dollars ends up leaving him on the run for his life and trying to piece together why he's being chased.
Director: John Woo | Stars: Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Michael C. Hall
Votes: 113,209 | Gross: $53.79M
36. Regarding Henry (1991)
PG-13 | 108 min | Drama, Romance
After being shot, a lawyer loses his memory and must relearn speech and mobility, but he has a loving family to support him.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Harrison Ford, Annette Bening, Michael Haley, Stanley Swerdlow
Votes: 34,343 | Gross: $43.00M
37. Robot & Frank (2012)
PG-13 | 89 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
In the near future, an ex-jewel thief receives a gift from his son: a robot butler programmed to look after him. But soon the two companions try their luck as a heist team.
Director: Jake Schreier | Stars: Peter Sarsgaard, Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler
Votes: 65,741 | Gross: $3.33M
38. Spellbound (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Romance
A psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll
Votes: 52,186 | Gross: $7.00M
39. Shutter Island (2010)
R | 138 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 1,453,109 | Gross: $128.01M
40. Total Recall (1990)
R | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
When a man goes in to have virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars implanted in his mind, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real - or is he?
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Rachel Ticotin
Votes: 353,985 | Gross: $119.39M
41. Total Recall (I) (2012)
PG-13 | 118 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A factory worker, Douglas Quaid, begins to suspect that he is a spy after visiting Rekall - a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led - goes wrong and he finds himself on the run.
Director: Len Wiseman | Stars: Colin Farrell, Bokeem Woodbine, Bryan Cranston, Kate Beckinsale
Votes: 266,145 | Gross: $58.88M
42. 12 Monkeys (1995)
R | 129 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.
Director: Terry Gilliam | Stars: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, Joseph Melito
Votes: 646,094 | Gross: $57.14M
43. While You Were Sleeping (1995)
PG | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A hopelessly romantic Chicago Transit Authority ticket booth operator is mistaken for the fiancée of a comatose patient.
Director: Jon Turteltaub | Stars: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle
Votes: 113,835 | Gross: $81.06M
44. Unknown (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller