Trainspotting – 1996 | 96mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

A wild, freeform, Rabelaisian trip through the darkest recesses of Edinburgh low-life, a group of disaffected Scottish youths turn to heroin to escape the banalities of modern-day existence. Then, they begin to suffer the consequences and discover that there are no easy solutions to the inherent loneliness and pain of life. Focusing on Mark Renton and his attempt to give up his heroin habit, and how the latter affects his relationship with family and friends: Sean Connery wannabe Sick Boy, dimbulb Spud, psycho Begbie, 14-year-old girlfriend Diane, and clean-cut athlete Tommy, who’s never touched drugs but can’t help being curious about them. While the frequent, non-judgmental use of drugs, riotous brutality, extreme profanity, and thick northern Scottish accents that characterise these slices from the lives of a grungy group of aimless, largely hopeless middle-class drug addicts may make the film hard for many viewers to relate to, others will find it a right-on view of modern urban life.

Based on a complex, episodic novel by British author Irvine Welsh, the film bears some resemblance to Stanley Kubrick‘s Clockwork Orange, in Trainspotting the young heroin addict Renton (Ewan McGregor) eschews his suburban roots in favour of a more idiosyncratic lifestyle with his four friends, and the viewer is taken on a wild, surrealistic ride into his mind.