Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller

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.

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92% liked it

274,149 ratings

Critics

89% liked it

54 critics

R, 1 hr. 34 min.

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Release Date: July 19, 1996

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DVD Release Date: March 24, 1998

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Flixster Reviews (19,246)


  • September 16, 2009
    I remember at collage in the mid 90's everyone thought it was cool to be Scottish and/or a recovering drug user. Overrated but still enjoyable! Hated the book though, I thought it was a load of contrived rubbish that made no sense!
  • September 16, 2009
    A group of Scottish junkies and misfits try to make their way in 90s Britain. Trainspotting is a true zeitgeist movie, and sums up perfectly the time in which it was made. Irvine Walsh's story is well observed and full of amusing tirades against 90s society with drug references t...( read more)hat are non-judgmental, trying to show both the cheese in the mousetrap of addiction as well as its terrible consequences. Despite the grim subject matter, there are a lot of laughs to be had cleverly counterpointed with the horror and degradation that a drug habit can cause. This is the film that rightly catapulted Ewan McGregor to international stardom with Robert Carlyle deserving an honourable mention as the hateful and clearly psychotic Begby. The plot is slightly flimsy but the film has a lot of energy and although it has inevitably dated as it is such a product of its time, it's still a bit of a classic of British cinema.
  • September 7, 2009
    Reminded me a lot of Requiem for a Dream. Pretty funny and, at times, very disturbing as well.
  • June 15, 2009
    Trainspotting doesn't glorify heroin. It glorifies youth. Youth at its worst, mostly, but youth trying to sort things as only youth can. Watch it again on video and it's still, in parts, hilariously funny. But whereas in the cinema peer pressure helped everyone laugh as the junki...( read more)es got it all wrong, sitting on your own sofa, heroin looks more serious than ever. This doesn't spoil the film, but it destroys the idea that Trainspotting could ever glorify heroin. No way.



    It begins with Renton (McGregor) giving up "that shite" but falling at the first hurdle, right down the worst toilet in Scotland. Truly one of cinema's most disgusting sequences, and perfect to introduce the rollercoaster rush of an unforgettable first half hour. Rich, earthy dialogue gushes like a ruptured sewer, etching characters deeper than any laughter lines. Sick Boy (Miller) mixes Connery's Bond with cod philosophy, Spud (Bremner) mixes dorky geekdom with the world's worst interview technique, while Begbie (Carlyle) mixes psycho sensibilities with impressive dexterity using the wrong end of a pool cue. But these personalities, like the settings ? bile green apartment walls, the blood red den of their dealer Mother Superior ? are stylised and get a sudden and shocking reality injection straight after a catalogue of hilariously catastrophic sexual encounters.



    The morning after, everything's changed. Renton's already classic rant against fresh air and the English can signal one thing only: a return to heroin, to crime and to hell. Director Boyle allows roughly two minutes before throwing the viewer into the pit, and it's a stunning turnaround. A baby dies, Spud goes to jail, Renton goes cold turkey ? humiliated by his parents, tormented by ghosts and lectured, bizarrely, by Dale Winton about HIV.



    Once again Renton gets his life back on the rails, but the nightmares of his past follow him even to London where he snatches despair from the very jaws of hope. Fittingly, he and his unwelcome flatmates Begbie and Sick Boy return briefly to their Edinburgh roots to bury another heroin statistic, before a coach trip back south for an amateurish, pathetic drug deal ? selling rather than buying, for once, and for one last thrill. It all goes pear-shaped, naturally, and no one is surprised, because by now the message is sinking in: heroin is for losers. For useless, unreliable fuck-ups, But in the hands of Boyle and this fantastic cast, and with a stunning soundtrack, it is possible to receive that message in an unprecedented and unrivalled piece of entertainment. Something Britain can be proud of and Hollywood must be afraid of. If we Brits can make movies this good about subjects this horrific, what chance does Tinseltown have?


    Choose life? Get a life ? choose Trainspotting
  • April 3, 2009
    This film was in the theaters my freshman year in college. I saw it in a place nicknamed the "Brew n' View", which means that while our beers (and glow in the dark shots brought around mid-viewing) didn't exactly match the heroin high glamorized in the movie, at least they dulle...( read more)d the more disturbing moments.
  • November 13, 2009
    In the hands of someone like Shane Meadows this film would be so depressing it would make Eraserhead look like a Disney movie. In Boyle's hands it's injected with something that's probably illegal, and turns what could easily be a miserably bleak film into something witty, smart ...( read more)and in love with life - while still showing a darker side. Easily one of the best British films ever made.
  • November 12, 2009
    An Amazing film.
    Intriguing and informative I guess
    To say the least....
  • November 12, 2009
    Why would someone wants to do something like that???
  • November 12, 2009
    Awesome interpretation of an awesome book!
  • November 11, 2009
    The opening scene is my all-time favorite movie scene, and not just because of Iggy Pop. I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this film. It is about so much more than junkies. Another thing that surprised me was that I could actually understand the whole film wit...( read more)hout subtitles, even though that very thick Scottish accent is not something I'm particularly familiar with.

Critic Reviews


April 12, 2002
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

THE experience of watching Trainspotting -- the electric, nasty and slick descent into the milieu of young Scottish junkies -- is a little like speeding through the digestive tract of some voracious b... full review

May 12, 2001
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Trainspotting is a singular sensation, a visionary knockout spiked with insight, wild invention and outrageous wit. full review

January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The movie has been attacked as pro-drug and defended as anti-drug, but actually it is simply pragmatic. It knows that addiction leads to an unmanageable, exhausting, intensely uncomfortable daily rout... full review

January 1, 2000
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

This is not dour social realism. It's a shot- from-a-cannon youth movie, with likable young people sticking needles in their arms in working-class Edinburgh. full review

View more Trainspotting reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • R0L0D3X
    June 29, 2009
    It's a weird film, But good

    8/10
  • KateBushFan
    November 21, 2007
    Shirley Henderson also played a small part in it. Why is she not included? x
  • henrychristianwihana
    October 24, 2007
    what a movie.. it gives you different persepective of drugs abusing, why they're doing it, why do they keep doing it, etc.

    danny boyle.. top notch!
  • MegaJaes
    August 27, 2007
    Probably as good as it will ever get from Danny Boyle - but hey, that is also pretty damn good!
  • ash10692
    June 18, 2007
    making a film out of a book like trainspotting was a mammoth task, but i dont think anyone else could have done it better
  • soapboxrmt
    March 3, 2007
    Spud had the job interview--
  • CwT2
    February 28, 2007
    Many favourite scenes :)
    Especially when hes cracked out his head @ the job interview (Was that Spud or sick boy) oh well you seen film you'll know what I mean
    Then theres Iggy Pop playing as there running down the streets & rolling over car bonnets
    "Probaly the worst toilets in scotland"
    "1 is my favourite character , I cnt read the poster that size & forget name *mumbles*
    Only bit that really freaked me is the Baby crawling across the ceiling :|
  • fuzzymoon1900
    February 15, 2007
    What fuckin' amazing for my soul,wooow!
  • iceblue52
    December 9, 2006
    i thought this movie was really well done. hats off to irvine welsh and everyone involved. i saw this when i was in my teens. it put me off drugs forever.
  • dixiemaclives
    October 13, 2006
    yo!!!!!! i noticed there wasnt a trainspotting skin(disgrace) so i made one...its not very good,but if you think its sexy you can use it.lofl

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Trainspotting Trivia


  •   Answer »
  • In what movie is Ewan McGregor a heroin addict?  Answer »
  • Ewan McGregor and fellow Trainspotting star Ewen Bremner appeared together again in which movie.  Answer »
  • This film stars Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Euan Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kelly McDonald, Kevin McKidd and Dale Winton!!  Answer »

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