Amnesia in popular culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from List of appearances of amnesia in fiction)

This is a list of appearances of amnesia in fiction.

Amnesia (particularly retrograde amnesia, the inability to recollect long-term memories) is often used in fiction to create mysteries in which the protagonist must attempt to recover his or her identity. Repressed memory and Lacunar amnesia may also be employed in a similar fashion.

[edit] Film

In The Bourne Identity (both the book and the movie series), main character Jason Bourne has retrograde amnesia, driving him on a quest to learn about his past as he is hunted by his former employers.
In the comedy film, Overboard, the main antagonist takes advantage of a wealthy woman with retrograde amnesia in an attempt to convince her she is his wife and mother of his children.
Clean Slate a 1994 comedy with Dana Carvey as a detective who starts each day with no memory of the day before.
Regarding Henry (1991) a lawyer (Harrison Ford) loses all memory and has to start life all over again after sustaining a brain injury.
Shattered (1991 film) (1991), a mystery-thriller with Tom Berenger as a man who experiences total amnesia after a horrible car wreck off a mountain road.
In the 2004 film The Forgotten, adults struggle with memory loss about the existence of their children, who have been abducted for alien/government experiments.
In Finding Nemo, the character of Dory suffers from a poor long-term memory, although it improves over the course of the film.
In 50 First Dates, a woman involved in a car accident subsequently loses the ability to remember anything after the accident, beginning each day with no memory of the previous one.
In Spider-Man 3, Harry Osborn loses a few years of memory after suffering head trauma, leading him to forget that Peter was Spider-Man and his vendetta against him.
Lacunar amnesia features in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
The film Memento alters the standard technique slightly, using reverse chronological order to depict a character with anterograde amnesia. ^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]
In the film Total Recall, the main character, Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger), learns that he has lost all memory of his past life, although this is the result of deliberate mental programming as part of an attempt to infiltrate his superior's enemies rather than as a result of an accident.
Dark City (1998), aliens manipulate the dreams and memories of an abducted communitiy.
In Paycheck, a man working on top-secret projects has his memory erased in the aftermath to protect the company's secrets, but the nature of his work prompted him to leave himself various clues that would allow him to remember what he created and subsequently destroy it.
In Century Fox's animated film, Anastasia (1997), Anya suffers from amnesia as a result of having her head hit when trying to climb on train to escape to Paris with her grandmother as a young girl, and cannot recall the first eight years of her life.
Dissociative Amnesia plays a critical role in the novel Mysterious Skin and movie of the same name.
The Morning After (1986 film) (1986); an alcoholic actress (Jane Fonda) wakes up next to a dead man with no memory of what happened.
Spellbound, a 1945 Hitchcock film about a man with repressed memories due to psychological trauma.
In the 1966 motion picture Mister Buddwing, the protagonist enters a fugue state in response to distress in his marital relationship.
Mirage, a 1965 suspense film starring Gregory Peck as a man with amnesia caught up in a conspiracy.
The Third Day (1965), following a car crash, a man with amnesia (George Peppard) accused of murder struggles to regain his memory.
In The Butterfly Effect, a man suffering from blackouts as a child learns that these 'blackouts' were the result of his future self influencing his past self's actions in some way.
In The Long Kiss Goodnight, a second-grade teacher learns that she was once an assassin for the government who contracted amnesia after she was shot and left for dead in the snow some years ago.
In the series of X-Men films, Wolverine suffers from retrograde amnesia, and experiences flashes of a very traumatic moment of his past life during nightmares.
In the film Regarding Henry, Harrison Ford's character Henry Turner suffers from severe retrograde amnesia, and must relearn everything about his life, including basic motor functions.
Random Harvest, a 1942 film about an amnesiac World War I vet who falls in love with a music hall star, only to suffer an accident which restores his pre-War memories but erases his post-War life.

[edit] Television

In the Tom and Jerry short Nit-Witty Kitty, Mammy Two Shoes accidentally hits Tom on the head, resulting in Tom getting amnesia and he started to acts like a mouse.
In the first season of 24, a prominent character has dissociative amnesia.
In the first season of Lost, Claire Littleton is kidnapped and has amnesia upon returning.
In season two of MacGyver, a narrow escape from a gang of international terrorists leaves Mac without his memories but with his ingenuity intact.
The TV show John Doe is based on an amnesiac who mysteriously appears in the middle of a sea.
In the TV show Heroes, one of the characters- nicknamed The Haitian- can cause various degrees of amnesia to others with his powers. His most notable victim is one of the main characters, Peter Petrelli, who, in the season 2 premiere, finds himself in a crate that travelled from New York to Ireland with no memory about how he got there or who he is; he eventually regains his memory thanks to his ability to heal allowing him to repair the damage to his brain.
In Power Rangers in Space, TJ Johnson suffers temporary amnesia after a serious blow to the head.
In Futurama, many characters of the daytime soap All My Circuits suffer from many kinds of amnesia, including explosive amnesia.
In an episode of Hey Arnold Helga gets amnesia from being hit on the head by a baseball caused by Arnold he takes care of her and she eventually gains her memory back but fakes it because she likes the attention.
In season 4 of Smallville, Clark Kent has his memory wiped in two separate episodes. In season 7 his cousin Kara also loses her memory.
In Destination Moon, a part of Adventures of Tintin, Professor Calculus, for a brief period of time suffers from total amnesia, putting the project in trouble since only he knows how to properly control the moon-rocket.
The American sitcom Samantha Who? (2007- ) begins with the main character having suffered retrograde amnesia as the result of an auto accident and the show revolves around events that made her remember her life before the accident.
In The Middleman episode "The Sino-Mexican Revelation" a guest character, Tyler, gets hit in the head after fighting Luchadors and ends up suffering Two-Day Amnesia from the event.
In the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures in their series of Doctor Who novels, the Eighth Doctor suffers from amnesia after the events of the novel The Ancestor Cell; although it is initially assumed that this is due to the trauma of him having been forced to destroy his home planet, it is revealed in The Gallifrey Chronicles that this was actually caused by him erasing his own memory to store the Matrix- the repository of all Time Lord knowledge- in his subconscious. Other incarnations of the Doctor have also suffered from temporary amnesia after they regenerate, although this form of amnesia was never total- simply featuring such slight problems as an inability to remember his companion's names or what he was doing at that immediate moment- and would eventually go away after a certain amount of time as his new persona stabilised.
In season 17 of The Simpsons episode: "Regarding Margie", Marge loses her memory as she accidentally inhales some chemicals (while cleaning) resulting in her collapsing and hitting her head onto a chair.
In the third season of Hannah Montana, Jackson receives amnesia after hitting his head on the wall after he pulls on stockings with Miley. It is them proven that Jackson faked it the whole time.
In The Wild Wild West 3rd season episode "The Night of the Amnesiac" (1968), James West (Robert Conrad) loses his memory for most of the story after sustaining a head injury during a fight.
In the Star Trek 3rd season episode "The Paradise Syndrome" (1968), Capt. Kirk suffers total amnesia after exposure to a strange energy beam inside an alien temple.
I Spy, 2nd season episode "Blackout" (1967); Agent Kelley Robinson (Robert Culp) wakes up next to a dead Soviet ballerina with no memory of the past 24 hours.
The Addams Family first season episode "Amnesia in the Addams Family" (1965); Gomez (John Astin) loses all memory of who he is after getting hit on the head with and Indian club. The family take turns clubbing him on the head to restore his memory. Where in the movie, Fester had amnesia after going into the Bermuda Triangle years before the film begins.
In the Spongebob SquarePants season 5 episode Who Bob What Pants?, Spongebob falls off a cliff, and gets hit on the head with his belongings after running away from home. This results in dissociative amnesia.
In the episode of M*A*S*H, None like it hot was about a medic who had repressed his memories after his brother was lost in battle.

[edit] Literature

In the novel currently being written The Lost Island the Protagonist develops a case of amnesia after drowning when he falls out of the crashing plane into the Ocean he is later saved by survivor Melissa.
The hero of Zelazny's 1970 Chronicles of Amber begins the series with amnesia. Over the course of the first novel he recovers memory of his lifetime, spanning centuries.
Jason Bourne, the protagonist of the 1980 novel, The Bourne Identity, is a secret agent with amnesia who is discovers that he's capable of extraordinary things as he struggles to piece together his past.
In the novel You Only Live Twice James Bond develops amnesia after a head injury in Japan and does not recover until the following book, The Man with the Golden Gun.
In the novel by Sophie Kinsella, Remember Me?, the main character, Lexi Smart has retrograde amnesia, and finds her life to be drastically different than she recalled.
In the novel The Dark Garden by Margaret Buffie, the main character, Thea, has no memory of her life or who she is, due to a bicycle accident.
Author Gene Wolfe addresses amnesia in the series Soldier of the Mist, where the main character Latro is injured during battle, causing relatively long term (24 hour) anterograde amnesia.
Dissociative Amnesia plays a critical role in the novel Mysterious Skin and movie of the same name.
Memoirs Of A Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin, Naomi, the main character, forgets everything past the age of twelve after a bad fall.
In the trilogy ISLAND by Gordon Korman, WIll experiences amnesia for about a week after being unconscious for a few nights. He didn't remember anyone on the island but his sister, saying that she was brainwashed and they had made him miss the boat. This continues until Will realizes that his pet boar, Rat Face, was really the name of the captain's first mate, Mr. Radford, nicknamed Rat Face by the crew.
In Isaac Asimov's novel The Currents of Space the protagonist has his mind manipulated by a "psychic probe" device, resulting in retrograde amnesia.

[edit] Comics

In the Marvel Comics series X-Men, Wolverine, one of the main characters, has retrograde amenesia due to brainwashing (Although some evidence suggests that it is the result of his healing ability repressing traumatic memories).

[edit] Anime

In Japanese anime, amnesia is a common theme:
- The Big O is largely based on the premise of an entire city having lost their memory forty years prior.
- In both Noir and Madlax , the main characters Kirika Yuumura, Madlax and Margaret Burton lose their memory because the memories they had were too traumatic for them.
- In Candy Candy Albert suffer of amnesia twice throughout the story.
- In Sukisyo, the main characters experienced amnesia because their pasts involve betraying someone dear to them.
- In Loveless, the main character has no memories of the first ten or so years of his life and never regains them.
- In Utawarerumono the main character has no memory before the series begins. He does not exactly get them back, save for in short bursts, showing several past homicides. These endeavors, with time, become accepted.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Trowa Barton, pilot of XXXG-01H Gundam Heavyarms suffers from amnesia for a brief period after he destroys his gundam during a fight against a deranged Quatre Winner who was piloting and under the influence of XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero at the time.
- In Spirited Away, the character Haku forgot everything about his life as a river spirit, along with his name, which restricted his freedom.
- In Pokémon, Ash Ketchum's Pikachu has amnesia in A Scare To Remember, but regains its memory near the end of the episode.
- In the fourth movie of Detective Conan, Mouri Ran has repressed memory after seeing her policewoman friend nearly killed, and she blamed herself.
- ef - a tale of memories, the character Chihiro has anterograde amnesia.
In the Japanese Drama, Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers), the main character, Domyouji, has amnesia in the second season.
- In Nanaka 6/17, the main character Nanaka suffers from a rare PTA to where she forgot the last 11 years of her life, believing that she is 6 years old.
- In Kanon the main character Yuichi has forgotten most about his past and goes to live with his cousin and aunt to try to remember. Throughout the series, many of the other characters seem to suffer from amnesia as well.

[edit] Video games

In the RPG Knights of the Old Republic global amnesia fits prominently into a midgame plot twist.
In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Bowser gets amnesia.
In the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Shadow the Hedgehog suffered for a time from amnesia after being found alive in a stasis, having no memory of his past.
In the computer game NetHack, if the player's character reads a scroll of amnesia, the character forgets the layout of the current dungeon level, as well as possibly the layouts of other dungeon levels and even object identifications that have been made.
In the Nintendo DS game The World Ends With You, the character Neku forgets all information about himself besides his name. After completing the first week of the game, Neku will regain his memory, but will still be missing the memory of how he died until the end of the second week.
In the Nintendo DS game Rune Factory, the main character has amnesia.
In the RPG Final Fantasy VI, the main character, Terra, has retrograde amnesia as a result of wearing a Slave Crown throughout her life - she remembers only her name, and nothing of her past.
In the RPG Dragon Quest VI, the three main characters suffer amnesia when their real-selves and dream-selves are separated by the demonlord Mudo. Their memories begin to return when their two selves are reunited.
Amnesia (video game) - text adventure written by Thomas M. Disch
In Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins, Activision; Tatsumaru, leader of the Azuma Ninja clan is in an accident during a raid on Gohda castle and loses his memory; and joins another ninja clan called the Burning Dawn.
In the first person shooter game XIII by Ubisoft, the main protagonist suffers from Amnesia and the whole plot deliberately tries to discover his true identity.
In the video game Lost: Via Domus the main character Eliot Maslow suffers from amnesia through out the story and recalls events through flash backs.

[edit] References

[0] Memory Loss & the Brain

[1] Memento, Movies and Memory

[2] Messing with the mind: Several movies are zeroing in on the loss of memory and its effects

[3] Metaphilm - Forget, Memory

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Amnesia in popular culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] Film

[edit] Television

[edit] Literature

[edit] Comics

[edit] Anime

[edit] Video games

[edit] References

Views

Personal tools

Navigation

Search

Interaction

Toolbox