TRAINSPOTTING (1996)

"I'm in the junkie limbo at the moment. Too ill to sleep. Too tired to stay awake, but the sickness is on tis way. Sweat, chills, nausea. Pain and crying. A need like nothing else I've ever known will soon take hold of me. It's on its way." -Mark Renton

 

Plot Synopsis

My plot synopsis of Trainspotting:

          Opening with narration from Mark Renton explaining how he does not have to live with the banalities of choosing a mundane, middle class life, and he doesn’t have to choose “I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?”
          Though pleasuring from the blissful stupor heroin provides, Mark makes a decision to quit heroin along with his friend Spud, though temptation constantly tugs. This drug temptation is an enticement so strong that Mark delves headfirst into “the worst toilet in Scotland” to retrieve his drugs. While sobriety was not as interesting as he hoped for, Mark and friends choose to rejoin the heroin lifestyle. Life addicted to heroin continues as usual through a montage of friends shooting up, doing deals, and existing in a trance. This trance persists until we hear agonizing shrieks, screams of a mother who’s baby died by neglect.
          Soon after, Mark and Spud are arrested for theft and while Spud is sent to jail, Mark is let off as a first offense. Knowing he has to quit heroin, and not being able to live on methadone (the heroin substitute), Mark goes for “one last hit.” Mark accidentally overdoses on this hit and finds himself in a hospital with his parents. Realizing their son has a problem, Mark’s parents lock him in his bedroom making him quit cold-turkey. Hallucinations of his friends addicted to drugs, Spud in jail, and a dead baby crawling on the ceiling haunt him during his withdrawal period.
            We learn that while going through withdrawal, the world has become obsessed with the AIDS disease, and the horrors that can come from sharing a needle, but that Mark is clean. Now free of drugs, Mark realizes there is no life for him in Scotland and moves to London and obtains a job as a real estate agent. Through letters from home, he learns of his friend’s lives. Tommy, previously abstaining from heroin, became addicted, then contracted and died of AIDS. Spud is out of jail, but can be found on drugs and in a gutter. Sick Boy is still a heroin addict and more lifeless than ever. And Begbie, who has always been violent, is now wanted for an armed robbery.
            While Mark is enjoying sobriety and the vibrancy of London, his “mates” will not let him go. Begbie arrives to hide from the Scottish police and is soon followed by Sick Boy. News of Tommy’s death brings them back to Scotland where they meet up with Spud, who is now sober. Sick Boy proposes a dangerous drug deal to make a large amount of money and promises they will all leave Mark alone if he pitches in for the drugs. Mark agrees, if only to finally be rid of his “friends”.
            To test the purity of their bought heroin, Mark has “one last hit” before returning to London. After arriving, the deal goes through, and leaves the gang 16000 pounds richer. While celebrating in a bar, Begbie as his usual violent self cuts a man’s face open with a bottle, leaving Mark to question his “friendship” with all of them.
            Later that night in a hotel room, Mark lies awake while the others sleep around him. He manages to slip out of bed and take the bag of money, betraying his friends and leaving them and his past behind him.
            The film ends with Mark’s narration of why he ripped off his “so called mates”, saying “The truth is that I'm a bad person. But, that's gonna change - I'm going to change. This is the last of that sort of thing. Now I'm cleaning up and I'm moving on, going straight and choosing life.”

Scenes

Quotes

 

 

Reviews & Interviews

Review by Roger Ebert

"...it elevates its miserable heroes to the status of icons (in their own eyes, that is), and it does evoke the Edinburgh drug landscape with a conviction that seems born of close observation. But what else does it do?"

Review by Rodger Ebert at rogerebert.com