MovieChat Forums > Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Discussion > Can you please explain the sequence of e...

Can you please explain the sequence of events (spoilers)?

posted 8 years ago by punkgirly
7 replies | jump to latest

I've seen it once or twice and I pretty much get it, but since the movie is such a mind f--- I'd love for someone smarter than me to explain the order of events please!

Not the order of events in the movie itself (that WE the audience watched), but within the movie--in Joel and Clementine's story. THEIR world.

This is what I sort of have:

Joel and Clementine meet at a beach in Montauk for the first time when Joel is with his friends.
They start chatting when she joins him as he sits down near the abandoned house.
They hit it off and date for two years.
Slowly they get annoyed at each other and Clementine wants out.
She goes to Lacuna to get her memories of him erased. Joel doesn't know this.
One of the technicians who does Clementine's procedure (Patrick) becomes smitten with her and starts wooing her.
Once Patrick gets Joel's belongings of Clementine in the backpack that he brings to Lacuna, Patrick steals it and uses the items to woo Clementine.
Clementine and Patrick start dating and he visits her at Barnes & Noble where she works.
Joel walks in, unaware that Clem had the procedure, and she "acts like she doesn't know him."
Joel gets in his car crying and drives to his friends' house, the ones from Montauk.
They pull out the envelope (side note question: I forgot, did they intercept the letter from Lacuna, or were they sent one to help and Joel never opened his?) and show him.
He goes to Lacuna and demands info. Once he finds out, he decides to have the procedure too.
That night, the technicians, Stan and Patrick, come over and work on Joel the whole night.
When it's almost done, Joel realizes he misses Clem and wants to work things out. He is aware of his subconscious and tries to "hide" her from being erased.
She tells him to meet her in Montauk.
Joel awakens and is at the train to go to work in the morning, but something inside him tells him to go to Montauk.
He "meets" Clem and due to the procedure, neither knows they've already met and dated the other for two years prior.
After a fun night (on the frozen lake), she goes in to get her toothbrush from her apartment and gets the mail.
She opens Lacuna's envelope and plays the tape in the car. They trip out. They have no idea what's up.
They realize and decide to try it again and make it work.

I'm probably forgetting a few things...can you try to add in stuff, or tell Joel and Clem's story from your point of view? Thanks!

I also left out the subplot of Mary and her affair with the doctor at Lacuna. I think we all got that she was the reason Clem got the tape mailed to her.

[–] J-No 8 years ago

Well done on the sequence! Not much to add, but:

They pull out the envelope (side note question: I forgot, did they intercept the letter from Lacuna, or were they sent one to help and Joel never opened his?) and show him.

The letter was addressed to Rob and Carrie, informing them of Clem's procedure, and asking them not to mention the relationship to her ever again.

[–] punkgirly 8 years ago

Ah yes, you're right about the letter being addressed to Carrie & Rob.

Follow up question: when Joel is in his apartment building's lobby getting the mail, who has the envelope from Lacuna....him or his neighbor?

I swore it was Joel, but if you watch it, it looks like it's the neighbor's mail. The neighbor comments like "The only one who sends me V-day mail is my mom" and I swear Joel glances down at his neighbor's mail. The neighbor has the Lacuna envelope.

[–] J-No 8 years ago

Follow up question: when Joel is in his apartment building's lobby getting the mail, who has the envelope from Lacuna....him or his neighbor?

Yes, the quick editing makes it difficult to tell whether Joel or the neighbor is holding the Lacuna envelope, but it must be the neighbor. Here's why: if you recall the ending, Clem sees the same neighbor at Joel's apartment and he greets her by name. The implication being that since he was aware of Clem and Joel's relationship (which he mentions in the lobby scene with Joel), he too was sent the same "don't mention the relationship to her" message that Carrie and Rob received from Lacuna.

Hope this helped!

[–] punkgirly 8 years ago

Ohhhh, yeah, you're so right.

His neighbor was sent a "don't mention this to Joel" envelope and the mail was the neighbor's but Joel doesn't know yet what Lacuna is because his friends hadn't told him yet. So we the audience know that Clem already had her memory erased.

Wait....didn't Joel have the dark pen marks on his temple in that scene? Meaning, indicating that he just went to Lacuna for the creating of his brain's map for that evening?

Maybe Joel saw the envelope from Lacuna and it further confirmed that Clem had the procedure?

Hmmmm....I swear that Joel had the black marks in that scene. I still have it on my DVR....I'll look soon.

This movie is such a mind f---!!!!

[–] J-No 8 years ago

Actually, Joel had not had the procedure yet, nor was he aware that Clem had the procedure performed at that point. The scene in the lobby was right after Joel was driving and crying, over the "opening" credits about 20 minutes into the film, which was sometime shortly after their breakup and Clem's procedure. That "driving" scene was essentially the "beginning" of the narrative as told to us, with the memory-erasing scenes serving as, well, flashbacks. (Based on your spot-on summary of the sequence of events, I think you already understand that.)*

The letter that was sent to the neighbor would've said "don't mention the relationship to Clem" at that point, since Joel had not yet had the procedure. Upon reading the letter (which we never saw), the neighbor would've been faced with the same dilemma as Carrie and Rob..."do I tell Joel that Clem had the procedure or not?"

The neighbor was obviously someone that was aware of their relationship (given his conversation with Joel about Valentine's Day with Clem). He also said "Hello Clem" at the end when she visited Joel's apartment confirming that he had met her and would've been a candidate to receive a copy of the letter just like Carrie and Rob.

*Something else of interest...Clem's hair is blue during the "current" stage of the film's narrative, which coincides with Joel wondering why she's "acting" like she's never met him, Joel learning about her getting the procedure, getting the procedure himself, Clem's relationship with Patrick, and Clem and Joel re-meeting for the first time. Side note: Winslet wore colored wigs throughout filming as various points of the timeline had to be filmed out of order.

👍

[–] tinasparklesau 8 years ago

When exactly in the timeline is Joel crying in the car? After his friends tell him that Clem erased him or after he has decided to have the procedure also himself?

[–] J-No 8 years ago

It's before those scenes. Joel driving, talks to his neighbor in the lobby, gets "scorned" at the bookstore by Clem, visits Carrie and Rob and learns that she had the procedure, prompting him to also get the procedure.

Essentially, it's the start of the current events in the film. It happens after the film opens to the flash-forward to Clem and Joel meeting in Montauk, talking on the train, him giving her a ride home from the station, having drinks in her apartment, visiting St. Charles River, and returning to her apartment with Patrick knocking on the car window. All of that flash-forward "meeting in Montauk" to "Patrick...window" comprises the first 18 minutes of the film. Then, the current events begin (Joel driving, etc.) which also include his memory-erasing (memories w/Clem, trying to "memory-hide" her, etc.) and Clem's relationship w/Patrick.