Trainspotting is a 1996 British film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. The movie follows a group of heroin addicts in a late 1980's economically-depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage through life. The film stars Ewan McGregor as Mark Renton, Ewen Bremner as Spud, Jonny Lee Miller as Sick Boy, Kevin McKidd as Tommy, Robert Carlyle as Begbie, and Kelly Macdonald as Diane. Author Irvine Welsh also has a cameo appearance as hapless drug dealer Mikey Forrester.
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 which he uses right away, but has to retrieve them from a filthy toilet 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 that he's become so disconnected to. 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.
Tired of sobriety, Sick Boy, Spud and Renton decide to get back on heroin. Through a montage we see them taking and dealing drugs and stealing to fund their habit. Renton narrates that they tried all chemicals available in the streets, claiming "we would've injected Vitamin C if only they'd made it illegal." Depressed after having been dumped by his girlfriend, Tommy also takes up heroin, which Renton reluctantly supplies him with. Their heroin-induced stupor is violently interrupted when fellow junkie Allison discovers that her baby daughter, Dawn, has died from neglect; Dawn had stayed in the flat with them but they had been too high to look after her. All are horrified, especially Sick Boy, who is revealed as Dawn's father.
Renton and Spud are later caught stealing from a shop and are pursued by security guards and captured, as seen in the opening scene of the film. Spud is given a prison sentence but Renton avoids punishment by enlisting in a Drug Interventions Programme, where he is put through a gradual rehabilitation and supplied with methadone.
Despite support from his friends and parents, Renton is continually depressed and ends up back in the flat of his dealer Swanney (Peter Mullan) after running away from rehab. He takes too much heroin and overdoses — Swanney puts him in a taxi and the driver leaves him on the ground outside a hospital, where his life is saved. Seeing no other option, Renton's parents take him home and lock him in his own bedroom to beat the addiction cold turkey.
Renton lies in his bed and goes through severe withdrawal symptoms, and sees several hallucinations, including Begbie threatening to "kick [the heroin] out" of his system, Spud in chains, and Tommy, who is now an addict. Finally Renton sees Dawn, Allison's dead baby, crawling toward him on the ceiling while he screams and cries for his mother. This is intercut with a bizarre imagined TV game show in which the host Dale Winton asks Renton's mother and father, "Is he guilty… or not guilty?".
Clean of heroin, Renton feels no purpose in life. He visits Tommy, who had tested positive for HIV, in his dark and filthy apartment. On Diane's advice, Renton moves to London and starts a job as a property letting agent. He continues his sobriety while enjoying the vibrancy of London and saving up money on the side, while corresponding with Diane. His happiness is again short-lived, however; Begbie commits an armed robbery and arrives at Renton's London flat seeking a hiding place from the police. Sick Boy also shows up and Renton feels increasingly frustrated that he cannot turn his "mates" away, despite the fact that they steal from him, wreck his flat and are a general nuisance. Seeking to be rid of them, he puts them up in a property he is responsible for until they learn of Tommy's death from toxoplasmosis and travel back to Scotland for his funeral.
Back in Edinburgh, they meet Spud, who has been released from prison. Sick Boy suggests a large and dangerous opportunity for them; the chance to buy two kilos of heroin for £4,000 and travel back to London to sell it for up to £20,000. Sick Boy needs Renton's help to afford the initial £4,000 and, after they buy it, Begbie makes Renton inject some of the heroin to make sure that it is good. The four travel to London and sell the heroin to a professional heroin dealer for £16,000. They go to a pub to celebrate, but the mood is broken when Begbie savagely attacks a fellow drinker. As his friends try to stop this, Begbie accidentally slices Spud's hand open with a knife. Renton is already considering taking all the £16,000 for himself, and this incident convinces him to go through with the plan.
Early the next morning, Renton pulls the bag of money away from a sleeping Begbie. Spud wakes up and sees this happening but remains silent as Renton leaves. Narrating, Renton vows to live the stable, traditional life he described at the beginning of the film as he walks through London in the sunrise. When Begbie awakes and discovers the money is missing, he smashes apart the room in a rage — the last time we see him, police are banging on his door and he is pulling out a knife. In the final scene, Spud later finds £2,000 left for him by Renton in a locker