Trainspotting (1996)
Hello you. Make a cup of tea. Put a record on. Dig out Iggy Pop. Lust for Life. Turn it up. Let the drums smash through your skull. Let the chaos settle in your bones. Because if you’re watching Trainspotting, you’re about to be dragged through the gutters of Edinburgh, where heroin is a religion, friendship is a liability, and survival is anything but guaranteed.
Let’s talk about Trainspotting.
Pressing Play
It’s 1996. Britpop is everywhere, Oasis and Blur are still at war, and the UK is riding high on Cool Britannia. But beneath the Union Jack t-shirts and tabloid hype, there’s something rotting. A generation on the dole, trapped in council flats, numbing the boredom however they can.
Then comes Trainspotting. Danny Boyle, fresh off Shallow Grave, adapting Irvine Welsh’s blistering novel with a script by John Hodge that cuts like a Stanley knife. It shouldn’t have worked. A film about heroin addicts, drowning in nihilism, shot on a tiny budget? And yet, it explodes. It is stylish, kinetic, and horrifyingly funny. It is the kind of film that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go.
What Makes This Film Unique
A film about heroin addicts shouldn’t be this much fun. It shouldn’t move like a bullet train, with freeze frames, jump cuts, and dream sequences that feel like nightmares. It shouldn’t make you laugh right before it punches you in the gut. But Trainspotting does all of that and more.
At its core, this is a story about escape. Renton wants out, but he is chained to the people who keep dragging him back in. Sick Boy, a scheming narcissist. Spud, a walking disaster. Begbie, a psychopath with a short fuse and a long history of violence. And then there is Tommy, the clean-cut one, the one who should have been fine. Until he wasn’t.
The film never lies about addiction. The highs are euphoric. The lows are unimaginable. The infamous "Worst Toilet in Scotland" scene? That is what heroin withdrawal feels like. Dawn’s death? That is the cost no one wants to acknowledge. But it never feels preachy. It doesn’t ask for your sympathy. It just shows you the wreckage and lets you decide how to feel about it.
Personal Connection and Relatability
You might not have shot up in a squat, but you have known what it feels like to want to escape. Maybe not from heroin, but from a town, a job, a version of yourself you can’t stand anymore. Maybe you have had friends like Begbie, people you knew you should walk away from, but somehow never did.
Trainspotting understands that. It knows that even when you break free, the past doesn’t disappear. Renton walks away with the money, but does he really escape? Or is he just running until the next relapse, the next bad decision, the next version of himself?
Filmmaker’s Vision and Impact
Danny Boyle shot this like a fever dream. Everything is heightened. The colours, the music, the camera angles that make normal life feel like a hallucination. The influence of A Clockwork Orange is all over it. Renton is another Alex DeLarge, a charming sociopath who makes us complicit in his crimes.
Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge strip the novel down to its sharpest bones, keeping the humour, the horror, and the manic energy. And the cast? Perfect. McGregor became a star overnight. Jonny Lee Miller’s Sick Boy is pure, uncut charisma. Robert Carlyle’s Begbie is the most terrifying bastard in Scotland.
The film hit like a pipe bomb. It became a cultural event, turning heroin addiction into a talking point and soundtracking the decade with Iggy Pop, Underworld, and Primal Scream. And when people like Bob Dole accused it of glamorising drug use, Boyle just smiled, because anyone who actually watched the film knew better.
"It was fuckin' obvious that that cunt was gonnae fuck some cunt." – Francis (Franco) Begbie
You’ll Like This If
You like your films fast, filthy, and nihilistically funny.
You want to watch something that pulses with 90s UK culture.
You can handle a film that makes you laugh one minute and devastates you the next.
You Won’t Like This If
You need characters you can fully root for.
You prefer your drug movies to be morality tales.
You have a weak stomach. The Worst Toilet in Scotland is no joke.
For Fans Of
The Acid House (1998). Another Irvine Welsh adaptation, just as grimy, chaotic, and darkly hilarious. Less structured, more nightmarish, but if Trainspotting worked for you, this will too.
Look Out For
The moment Renton breaks the fourth wall. It happens fast. That quick glance at the camera when he chooses life. It is easy to miss, but it is everything. A flicker of awareness. A hint that maybe, just maybe, he knows he is a character in someone else’s story.
If You Like This, Try This
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Not about heroin, but it has the same kinetic energy, dark humour, and working-class grit. The UK was on fire in the late 90s, and this is another film that bottled the chaos.
Why You Should Care
Trainspotting is a grenade wrapped in neon. It is a film about addiction that refuses to moralise. A film about friendship that is soaked in betrayal. A film that shows you the filth and the beauty of a world most people pretend doesn’t exist.
It is not just one of the best British films of the 90s. It is one of the best films, period.
Choose life. Choose Trainspotting.
See you on down the road.
