Trainspotting

Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out, despite the allure of the drugs and influence of friends.

• Director:Danny Boyle
• Genre:Comedy | Crime | Drama
• Runtime:94 minutes

Cast

Ewan McGregor : Renton
Ewen Bremner : Spud
Jonny Lee Miller : Sick Boy
Kevin McKidd : Tommy
Robert Carlyle : Begbie

Set in Edinburgh, the film begins with a narration from Mark Renton (McGregor) while he and his friend Spud (Bremner) run down Princes Street pursued by security guards. Renton states that unlike people who “choose life” (i.e. a traditional family lifestyle with children, financial stability and material possessions), he and his friends prefer to live in a constant drug haze. We are introduced to his friends: con artist Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), clean-cut footballer Tommy (McKidd) and violent sociopath Francis Begbie (Carlyle). Sick Boy, Spud and Renton are all heroin addicts, while Tommy and Begbie openly criticise heroin use.

In the second scene, Renton decides to quit heroin. He buys opium rectal suppositories from Mikey Forrester (Irvine Welsh) which he uses right away, but has to retrieve them from a filthy lavatory when he is struck with diarrhea. After this “final hit”, he locks himself into a room to undergo withdrawal.

After quitting heroin, Renton continues to struggle as he’s forced to adapt to the conventional lifestyle from which he has become so disconnected. His “friendship” with Begbie is illustrated when Begbie casually throws his pint glass off a bar balcony, injuring a woman and causing a violent brawl. Renton later joins his friends and goes to a dance club in pursuit of sex. Spud gets drunk and is dragged home by his girlfriend, Gail (Shirley Henderson). When Gail tries to have sex, Spud passes out and defecates all over her bed. Tommy goes home with his girlfriend Lizzy (Pauline Lynch) but this results in a violent argument when they discover that a sex tape they had made of themselves has gone missing (in an earlier scene, Renton steals the tape). Tommy mistakenly believes he accidentally returned the video to the rental store, this eventually causes Lizzy to break up with him.

At the club, Renton flirts with a girl named Diane (Macdonald), who quickly dissects his bad chat-up lines, but takes him home anyway. After the two have sex, Diane refuses to let Renton sleep in her bed; the next morning, Renton discovers that this is because Diane is actually a schoolgirl living with her parents and under the age of consent. Diane then blackmails him into staying in contact lest she call the police and inform them of their one-night stand. Read more

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