Joel and Clementine get back together. They know they have erased each other. They have listened to the tapes of their own relationship—the tapes where they list every insecurity, every annoyance, every cruel word they said to each other. They know, scientifically, that they will probably hurt each other again.
Clementine: "But you will. You know, you will think of things. And I’ll get bored of you and feel trapped because that’s what happens with me." Eterno Resplandor De Una Mente Sin Recuerdos Pelicula
We spend our lives trying to erase the bad memories. We block exes on social media. We throw away photos. We move cities. We wish we could "unmeet" people. The Lacuna Corporation (the memory-erasing clinic in the film) is just the logical, terrifying extension of our modern coping mechanisms. The final scene of Eterno Resplandor is perhaps the most honest scene in cinema history. Joel and Clementine get back together
Joel replies: "I can’t see anything I don’t like about you." They know, scientifically, that they will probably hurt
"Eterno resplandor de una mente sin recuerdos."
Devastated and vengeful, he decides to do the same. But as he lies in a machine watching their relationship play backward—from the bitter fights to the electric first meeting—he realizes he doesn’t want to let her go. The movie takes place mostly inside Joel’s mind as he desperately hides Clementine in the "forgotten" corners of his childhood memories to save her from the eraser. The title refers to a line from Alexander Pope’s poem Eloisa to Abelard : "How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!"