Line #98 Literature/Trainspotting


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6	->''"Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?"''
7	-->-- '''Renton''' (in the film)
8
9	->''"Still, failure, success, what is it? Whae gies a fuck. We aw live, then we die, in quite a short space ay time n aw. That's it; end ay fuckin story."''
10	-->-- '''Renton''' (in the book)
11
12	''Trainspotting'' is a dark and bizarrely written novel by Creator/IrvineWelsh; it was published in 1993 and, as many a RailEnthusiast has probably found out the hard way, has absolutely zip to do with actually looking for trains. [[BreakthroughHit Wildly popular]] and noted for its cynical and occasionally shocking tone, the novel kicked off a three-decade-long successful writing career for Welsh, and has been called "the voice of punk, grown up, grown wise and grown eloquent".
13
14	The story follows a group of young Scottish men who are close friends (from childhood, albeit beginning to drift apart), and their lives of drinking, sex, family problems, HIV, death, and most of all, heroin addiction. The protagonists are Mark Renton, an on-and-off heroin junkie, and his friends Danny "Spud" Murphy, Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson, Francis "Franco" Begbie (these four are known as the Big Four characters of the franchise), and Thomas "Tommy" Laurence. It's all very [[BlackComedy darkly humorous]], ''[[MoodWhiplash and then a baby dies]]''.
15
16	Large chunks of the novel are written in heavily accented, stream-of-consciousness style. The initial challenge is to figure out who the main characters are, whose points of view are being shown, which of the dozens of nicknames refer to which people, and what personalities they've got. Because of this, the novel starts out as an incomprehensible trip -- but after a few chapters, things start to click and the plot starts to unfold.
17
18	The novel was adapted into a film in 1996 by Creator/DannyBoyle, and was the second of three films from the mid-[[The90s nineties]] directed by Boyle and starring Creator/EwanMcGregor, along with ''Film/ShallowGrave'' and ''Film/ALifeLessOrdinary''. It also features Creator/JonnyLeeMiller as Sick Boy, Ewen Bremner as Spud, a scarily emaciated Creator/KevinMcKidd as Tommy, Creator/RobertCarlyle as Francis Begbie and a youthful Creator/KellyMacdonald as Diane. Allegedly due to a head cold, Kevin [=McKidd=] missed out on being on the iconic poster.
19
20	A sequel to the film [[note]]loosely based on Welsh's sequel novel ''Porno''[[/note]] languished in DevelopmentHell for quite some time, but [[SavedFromDevelopmentHell was finally released]] in January 2017 as ''[[Film/{{T2Trainspotting}} T2 Trainspotting]]'', with the director and main cast returning. The teaser trailer for ''T2'' can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlOuPHeBjgw here]], and the offcial trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsozpEE543w here]].
21
22	Welsh wrote several continuations of the novel's story; together with the original, they form a quintet of stories revolving around addiction, brutality and soul which has come to define Welsh's output.
23	* ''Literature/{{Porno}}'', a {{sequel}} published in 2002 which catches up with the main characters ten years later and mainly follows Sick Boy and Renton as they work through their issues with each other while producing a pornographic movie.
24	* ''Literature/{{Skagboys}}'', a {{prequel}} published in 2012 which charts the descent of the main characters into drug addiction, violence, crime and defeatism.
25	* ''Literature/TheBladeArtist'', a 2016 novel focusing solely on (an apparently reformed) Begbie in the present day.
26	* ''[[Literature/DeadMensTrousers Dead Men's Trousers]]'', the 2018 sequel to ''Porno'' (following the cliffhanger set up by ''Artist''). Before its release, Welsh teased that [[CharacterDeath one of the Big Four would die in this novel]], and that the new depravity for them to profit by would be the illegal organ trade.
27
28	The characters also make other appearances in passing throughout Welsh's works, perhaps most notably in ''Literature/{{Glue}}'' and its follow-up ''A Decent Ride''. In some ways, the character traits of the Big Four of the ''Trainspotting'' series are reflected in the "B team" of ''Glue'', but with important differences.
29
30	Please note that it is important, where relevant, to distinguish between the film and the novel because they (and their sequels) each take the story arc, characters, setting etc in a moderately different direction.[[note]]When you look at the changes made between ''Porno'' and ''T2 Trainspotting'', by then it's more like significantly different.[[/note]] Therefore, generating confusion should be avoided when editing this article.
31
32	----
33	!!Provides examples of:
34
35	* AbbeyRoadCrossing: When the lads go to London for the deal in the film, they cross the road to the hotel in this manner.
36	* AccidentalAimingSkills: In the film, Begbie and Tommy are playing pool one day. Since Tommy doesn’t want to be killed by Begbie (irritable enough at the best of times, but ''right now he's terribly hungover!'') for beating him at pool, Tommy intentionally screws up shots, only for the ball to land in the right pocket.
37	* ActorAllusion: Keith Allen was cast as a dealer, referencing his earlier role in ''Shallow Grave''. WordOfGod is that it is the same character, and ''Trainspotting'' takes place before ''Film/ShallowGrave''.[[invoked]]
38	* AdaptationalContextChange: In the book, Renton and Begbie go on a train journey to lay low after comitting a crime and Begbie gets angry that Renton forgot the cards. In the film, this scene is transferred to the coach trip to London for the final deal and it's Sick Boy who forgets the cards.
39	* AdaptationalProtagonist: Although Renton does feature heavily in the original novel, the book's overall structure is diffuse, dealing with several different characters' points of view. Rather than adapting the novel into an AnthologyFilm, the movie makes Renton the lead character.
40	* AdaptationalSexuality: Mark's flings with men are absent from the film, but the relaxed attitude towards same sex relations remains in place, making him AmbiguouslyBi in the film.
41	* AdaptationDyeJob:
42	** Sick Boy is TallDarkAndSnarky in the books and blond in the film. Although, in the drug trip sections in ''Dead Men's Trousers'', he's blond.
43	** Renton has ginger hair in the book. In the film, he has dark hair.
44	* AdaptationNameChange: In the film, Tommy's last name is changed from Laurence to [=MacKenzie=].
45	* AdaptedOut: Most of the group (most noticeably Matty, Davie and Second Prize) don't appear in the film, due to the book having a large cast. Most signficantly, Mark's older brother, who in the book serves in the Army until he is killed by terrorists in Northern Ireland, is absent from the film.
46	* AnAesop: The film has several:
47	** You can't fight addiction alone. Renton tries to quit heroin multiple times on his own and each time he ends up relapsing. However, once his parents get involved and [[NailedToTheWagon force him to quit cold turkey]] he starts to get better.
48	** Drug addiction not only hurts the users but also destroys the lives of the people around them as demonstrated by Baby Dawn who [[spoiler: ends up dying due to neglect]] as her parents were too drugged out to take care of her.
49	* TheAlcoholic: Second Prize, to the point where even his drug addicted friends are embarrassed to be in his company.
50	* AMFMCharacterization: Music plays a big part in the characters' lives:
51	** Renton is a huge fan of Music/DavidBowie, as well as Music/IggyPop and Music/LouReed. In the book, he's annoyed to hear someone playing the ''Rock and Roll Animals'' version of "Heroin" as opposed to Music/TheVelvetUnderground's version, which breaks the junkie's golden rule.
52	** Spud loves Music/FrankZappa.
53	** Sick Boy clearly prefers Reed's Velvet Underground work, finding his solo stuff average.
54	** Tommy loves Iggy Pop so much that he bought a ticket... on the same date as his girlfriend's birthday.
55	** Begbie loves Music/RodStewart and won't accept any talk about him being gay.
56	** Diane sings "Temptation" by Music/NewOrder in the shower and has a Bowie picture.
57	* AmIRight: Used by Diane:
58	-->"Do you find that this approach usually works, or, let me guess, you've never tried it before. In fact, you don't normally approach girls, am I right?"
59	* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: At the celebration dinner following the suspension of his sentence, Mark Renton's mother: tells Begbie and Sick Boy all about her periods. She then pinches Renton's cheek and calls him her wee bairn, gleefully informing Begbie and Sick Boy that he ''hates'' being called that; then tops it all off by singing Mark his former 'favorite song,' a little ditty about momma's little baby loving his shortbread. Sick Boy joins in. It's enough to make Renton wish he'd gone to prison instead of Spud.
60	* AmbiguouslyBi: All the main male characters that are in relationships with women, but they all also seem to be quite physically affectionate with each other, at least when they're high. [[ArmouredClosetGay Except Begbie]]. Renton speculates at one point that human beings are bi by default, and it's social pressure that causes most to conform to being heterosexual. The film celebrates the idea by starting off with a gay (if heroin-induced) snog.
61	* ArmouredClosetGay: Begbie in the film. Robert Carlyle played him as a closeted homosexual whose bursts of rage stemmed partially from his fear of being outed, and WordOfGod agreed with the interpretation. When a girl he's getting frisky with turns out to be a man he amazingly ''doesn't'' attack the person in question, which at a glance seems [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness very out of character]]. It's also insinuated with a scene in which Begbie makes Renton put a cigarette in his mouth, which is charged with sexual tension.[[invoked]]
62	* ArtImitatesArt: For the look of the film, Boyle was influenced by the colours of Francis Bacon's paintings, which represented "a sort of in-between land – part reality, part fantasy".
63	* TheArtifact: Due to the Big Four (Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie) receiving the most limelight in later books, and his absence from the film adaptation, Second Prize's presence at the climatic drug deal in the first book is treated this way in ''Porno'' and ''Dead Men's Trousers'', with him being little more than an afterthought or mild obstacle for Renton.
64	* ArtifactTitle: The only reference to trainspotting in the book was omitted from the movie, although trains do appear several times throughout the film and one of the trailers featured Renton tied to the railway tracks.
65	* ArtisticLicenceGeography: The scene where Diane and Rents come out of the nightclub? Filmed outside the Volcano, in ''Glasgow''. The characters are based in ''Edinburgh'', which is fifty miles away. The taxi fare must have been ruinous.
66	* AuthorTract: Renton's rant against the British involvement in Northern Ireland and Unionism.
67	* AxCrazy: Francis Begbie. He gets physically aroused from violence and hurts people for no reason. In the book, this is a result of both his own sadistic aggression and due to his friends "painting him as the ultimate psychopath" so they'll look cooler by hanging out with him. Interestingly, Renton remembers how Begbie was much more mellow and easy-going as a teenager (when he wasn't yet the toughest guy in the neighbourhood).
68	* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: [[GallowsHumor Until they die.]]
69	* BaitAndSwitch: In the movie, when Renton overdoses, Mother Superior says he'll call him a taxi. Cut to an ambulance tearing through the estate....[[spoiler:Which isn't for him. It goes straight past the two of them by the side of the road, and Renton is then roughly bundled into an actual taxi]]
70	* BarBrawl:
71	** In the movie, Begbie starts one by tossing his empty pint glass off the balcony to the bar below, and shatters on a young woman's head. Slamming his knife on the table and rubbing his hands together with glee, he goes downstairs and declares that nobody is to leave the bar until the culprit is found. When asked by the girl's boyfriend who he is, Begbie simply [[GroinAttack kicks him in the balls]], starting a massive brawl.
72	** The scene is slightly different in the book--Begbie begins to furiously interrogate the entire bar, playing detective and shouting at the bartender to call the police. The glassed man's mate sets off the brawl by punching another man. After the massive bar brawl is over, he and Begbie together kick another man to a pulp, and he cheerfully extends his hand to Begbie. Who promptly kicks him in the groin and punches his face in.
73	* BatterUp: In the novel, Sick Boy makes use of one to kill a dog who had attacked its owner (who had done so because Sick Boy [[GroinAttack shot him in the balls with an air rifle]]). He lampshades its use, noting that nobody on the east side of the Atlantic Ocean keeps a baseball bat for playing baseball.
74	* BerserkButton: Begbie has myriads of them.
75	* BetterThanSex: Several of the heroin junkies praise their drug of choice as being better than sex. Significantly, such comparisons are what lead Tommy to take up the habit after his girlfriend dumps him, with devastating consequences.
76	-->'''Allison:''' It beats any meat injection. That beats any fucking cock in the world!
77	* BigBad: Francis Begbie.
78	* BiggerOnTheInside: When fishing his anal suppositories out of the toilet, Mark climbs completely into it and is swimming around underwater.
79	* BlackAndGrayMorality: At least among the major characters. Some of their family members are good, responsible citizens.
80	* BlackComedy: Lots and lots, but with a few DudeNotFunny moments to induce MoodWhiplash at points.
81	* BluffTheImposter: At a job interview in the book (and in a DeletedScene in the film), Renton claims to have gone to a posh secondary school, which the interviewer also went to. The interviewer then asks him if a particular teacher is still teaching there. Renton, sensing a trap, simply laughs and says "God, you're taking me back now!"
82	* BookEnds:
83	** Renton's "choosing life" speeches at the beginning and end.
84	** While preparing to kick heroin in the beginning, Renton contemplates his pale, sickly, strung-out reflection while washing down pills with a glass of liquor. At the end he once more stands before a mirror, ''empties'' a glass of liquor to fill it with water instead, and contemplates his significantly-healthier complexion.
85	** The film also starts and finishes on an attempt by Renton to "kick" an unhealthy habit preventing him from leading a fulfilling life. The first is heroin addiction; the second attempt is escaping the toxic friends and environment which enables and exacerbates his self-destructive lifestyle.
86	* BorrowingTheBeatles:
87	** The scene where the store detectives chase Renton down the street is reminiscent of the scene in ''Film/AHardDaysNight'' where The Beatles are pursued by fans.
88	** While watching the train, Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Tommy arrange themselves in the same manner as the band did on the back of ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''.
89	** The scene where Renton wakes up on the couch in the morning at Diane's home and says hello to someone passing through the hallway while covered with a blanket to his chin, is reminiscent of a scene in ''Film/{{Help}}'' where Music/RingoStarr is found in a trunk of a car covered up with a blanket, and upon being found, says hello.
90	** The "Mother Superior's" written in the dealer house is a reference to "Happiness is a Warm Gun", a song allegedly about heroin, which has the line "mother superior jump the gun".
91	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Renton's narrations in the film, especially when he first encounters Dianne and narrates his own thoughts in the third person.
92	* BreakTheComedian: Daniel "Spud" Murphy is the endearingly silly ButtMonkey of the group, still bouncing back and telling jokes despite constant misfortune. However, going to prison for shoplifting, ending up homeless and losing his friend Tommy does a number on poor Spud: in the film, he can barely bring himself to speak up when brought in to help with the skag deal, and generally appears completely listless. He looks to be cheering up a bit when the deal works out... only for Begbie to slice his hand open in a fit of rage.
93	* BreakTheCutie: Tommy, a positive and well-meaning character, is completely and utterly destroyed by heroin over the course of the second act.
94	* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: The dealer in London carries one. The filmmakers discuss this trope in the DVD commentary.
95	* BritainIsOnlyLondon: Over the top montage of tourist sights when Renton moves to London.
96	* {{Britpop}}: The film was released at the height of Britpop and fittingly had a number of Britpop artists contribute to the soundtrack.
97	* BrokenAce: Second Prize is popular, handsome, and a star football player with skills that could rival professionals - but he's also a massive alcoholic with a need to prove himself in fights. He ultimately wastes his talents.
98	* BrotherSisterIncest: Renton offhandedly mentions a former friend who he'd dropped after it became common knowledge he'd been shagging his sister.
99	* BumpIntoConfrontation: Don't make Begbie spill his pint.
100	* ButtMonkey:
101	** Poor, poor Spud. He always screws up.
102	** Second Prize, though thankfully, he's usually too drunk to care.
103	* ByronicHero: Both Renton and Sick Boy qualify, though Sick Boy is more towards the villainy end of the spectrum.
104	* CantYouReadTheSign: Amusingly, the car in which Begbie experiences an UnsettlingGenderReveal is parked under a sign that says "No Ball Games".
105	* CatholicSchoolGirlsRule: Diane. Subverted in the fact that Renton has no idea she's underage when she picks him up (out of uniform, natch) at a club, and is horrified when he sees her dressed for school the next morning and realises her ''actual'' age.
106	* ChainedToARailway: The [[http://youtu.be/nBKWnAdmJJ8 teaser trailer]] for the film, even though it doesn't happen. Also has GallowsHumour in spades.
107	* ChaoticStupid: Begbie strays into this territory frequently, given that he insists not only on being a violent and often sadistic brawler, but often doing it within plain sight of people who are liable to call the police or remember his face. At one point, after kicking in a man's head and accidentally slicing open Spud's hand, he stands right in front of the bar and various shocked witnesses and demands that Renton take at least a minute to "bring me doon a fukken ciggareh" before even considering leaving — or taking his injured friend to a hospital. He's also been known to attack bystanders for eating chips too loudly. Neutral AxeCrazy might be a better description of his alignment, come to think of it.
108	* CharacterDevelopment:
109	** The novel is about, in part, Mark's development from heroin addict into the mature adult that appears in ''Porno''.
110	** The first time around, both book- and movie-wise, Dianne is portrayed as a sex-crazed, club-hopping teenager; by the time ''Porno'' comes up she's toned her recreational drug use down and she matured into a pretty well-adjusted university student, working on her thesis and being more than capable to hold her own in a conversation. She still loves to party, though.
111	** Over the course of ''Skagboys'', Sick Boy develops from a LoveableRogue with a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold heart of gold]] to the [[TheSociopath borderline-sociopathic]] pimp and pusher that appears in ''Trainspotting'' and ''Porno''.
112	** By the time of ''Porno'', Second Prize has embraced [[TheTeetotaler sobriety]] (not that he had much of a choice) and [[HeelFaithTurn religion]], having distanced himself from the lads after getting ripped off by Renton.
113	** Begbie has gone through some by ''The Blade Artist'', becoming more well-read, amicable and accepting of others, [[spoiler: though his violent, psychopathic tendencies and urges - apparently stemming from what American analysts diagnose as intermittent explosive disorder - tend to resurface]].
114	* CharacterFilibuster: Renton's "Choose life" rant, which gets an IronicEcho after his CharacterDevelopment.
115	* CharacterFocus: ''Trainspotting'' is centered mostly on Renton, whilst ''Porno'' shifts the focus to Sick Boy. ''Skagboys'' has the two sharing the limelight.
116	* ClusterFBomb: This is made all the more obvious in the film that was based on this book.
117	* CombatPragmatist: Begbie is known to carry a variety of home-made weapons about him, such as sharpened knitting needles. Renton suspects that he's actually not a very good fighter in a "square go."
118	* ComfortingTheWidow: Spud's mother receives this from Renton and his parents, but Begbie twists it into a rant that blames her for her son's imprisonment. In the book, Renton says: "There were no sacred cows for Begbie. Not even old ones from Leith whose laddie had just gone to prison". Additionally, Mark puts in a great deal of effort comforting his brother Billy's widow immediately after his funeral.
119	* ComplainingAboutThingsYouHaventPaidFor: Begbie has just robbed a jewelers at gunpoint and the jewelery he's stolen is not as valuable as he thought.
120	-->Supposed to be fucking solid silver. It's fucking garbage! Those young couples investin' all their fucking hopes in that stuff and all...
121	* CompositeCharacter: Several in the film. Justified in that the book had such a huge cast that they had to be trimmed for the film. Matty's death is given to Tommy in the film, whilst Spud inherits some of Second Prize's character flaws. The unfortunate incident involving Davie Mitchell is also given to Spud in the film.
122	* CompressedAdaptation: The stage play ends with Mark moving to London, omitting the drug deal.
123	* CountryMatters: Probably one of the most frequently occurring words in the dialogue. A particularly notable example (almost Lampshading?) occurs when Mark accuses Sick Boy of being a "sexist cunt", following which Sick Boy [[LampshadeHanging points out]] the absurdity of using the words "sexist" and "cunt" in the same sentence.
124	* CrapsackWorld: Renton and his pals use drugs as an escape from the drudgery and misery of mundane life. The dives they shoot up in are, as you'd expect, completely disgusting and filthy, but the rest of Edinburgh isn't exactly portrayed as a cultural beacon either. In fact, the whole place is bleak, grey, and blighted with urban decay.
125	* CreatorCameo:
126	** Creator/IrvineWelsh cameos as Renton's dealer Mikey Forrester.
127	** Screenwriter John Hodge plays a policeman in the opening scene.
128	** Producer Andrew Macdonald cameos as the man who Renton tries to sell the "Victorian Townhouse" to.
129	* CrotchGrabSexCheck: Begbie chats up a woman at a club and takes her to his car to get to know her better. After 'inspecting the goods' he finds out she is transgender and kicks her out of his ride.
130	* CultSoundtrack: Two soundtrack albums were released with various pop, techno and rock songs on it that helped its success.
131	* CuteKitten: Depressingly {{Inverted\|Trope}}[=/=]{{Subverted\|Trope}} with Tommy's death.
132	-->'''Gavin:''' [[MoodWhiplash The kitten was fine.]]
133	* CuttingBackToReality: During Renton's big withdrawal scene in the film, he frequently hallucinates people sitting on or around his bed who immediately vanish in the next cut. In one instance, while hiding his head under the covers he finds Begbie lying next to him, threatening to kick the heroin out of him if it's still there when he comes back; terrified, Renton crawls out from under the covers in an attempt to escape - only to find that the bed is empty and he's once again alone.
134	* DeathOfAChild: Sick Boy's baby daughter Dawn dies of starvation and neglect.
135	* DemotedToExtra: Gav Temperley had a big part in the book. In the film, he's in the background of a couple of scenes and tells Renton how Tommy died.
136	* DescentIntoAddiction: Tommy is introduced to heroin by Renton after his girlfriend dumps him and ultimately contracts HIV.
137	* DespairEventHorizon:
138	** It's implied that, for all his faults, Sick Boy is still a pretty decent guy. Until his daughter dies of starvation. What Renton says about this afterwards provides the page quote for this trope: "It wasn't just the baby that died that day; something inside Sick Boy was lost and never returned".
139	** Tommy goes past the Horizon after his breakup with Lizzy. It doesn't end well.
140	* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch: Middle-finger gestures are generally censored in America, but the poster in which Begbie gives a V-sign is shown without any problems.
141	* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: Tommy has "the virus" but never knew he'd gone "full-blown". He officially died of toxoplasmosis, an opportunistic infection that attacks immuno-compromised people. Renton had to get tested for something that he may have also contracted, but fortunately for him his test came up negative. Clearly his disease was AIDS but it's never used in direct reference to him. HIV was brought up during Renton's GoingColdTurkey nightmare, but at no point in the film is it stated directly that Tommy has, or that Renton doesn't have AIDS. Though the phrase "AIDS Junkie scum" spray painted on Tommy's door might have been a clue.
142	* DisgustingPublicToilet: "The Worst Toilet In Scotland".
143	* DisproportionateRetribution: Begbie beats a man round the head with his pool cue. The man's crime? Eating his crisps loudly. He later glasses a man in a pub for spilling his pint on him.
144	* DramaticEllipsis: In the movie Renton, while narrating his own inner thoughts in the third person, says them out loud. "Dot, Dot, DOT".
145	* DroppedInTheToilet: {{Exaggerated\|Trope}} for extreme {{squick}}. Renton has a PottyEmergency, and ends up going into what's labeled as "[[DisgustingPublicToilet The Worst Toilet in Scotland]]" to void his bowels. However, once he's done, he realizes that the opium suppositories he had in are now also in the toilet. He tries to fish them out, fighting off trying to throw up the whole time, but can't reach them. The scene then shows him diving head-first completely into the toilet, swimming through pristine water and retrieving the suppositories from the bottom of an ocean bed, and then emerging from the toilet horribly befouled.
146	* DoubleSubversion: When Renton overdoses, Mother Superior asks him "perhaps sir would like me to call for a taxi?" This is followed by a shot of a speeding ambulance, giving the impression that "taxi" was a dark euphemism. Mother Superior drags an immobile Renton out onto the street, whereupon we see the ambulance sail past on an adjoining road. It turns out Mother Superior really did call for a (legally less risky) taxi to take Renton to hospital.
147	* DrugsAreBad: Renton gives an articulate and fierce defence of his lifestyle in the beginning, and the gang seem to be living fast and carefree at times, but tragedy and horror strike often. Ultimately Renton leaves the life.
148	* DysfunctionJunction: It's an Irvine Welsh story, so the characters consist of junkies, psychos, losers and deadbeats.
149	* EiffelTowerEffect: The film introduces a sequence set in London with a quickfire montage featuring Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and Canary Wharf.
150	* EmbarrassingDampSheets: Spud wishes he had only wet the bed. What he did was... worse.
151	* EruditeStoner:
152	** Sick Boy.
153	---> '''Renton''' He's always been lacking in moral fibre.\
154	'''Swanny''' He knows a lot about Creator/SeanConnery.\
155	'''Renton''' That's hardly a substitute.
156	** Renton constantly ruminating on his views on the world, quickly getting a grasp at psychoanalytical ideas when he is being examined and having an understanding on the overall ideas of Kierkegaard. Spud in the book is a failed example of this, constantly saying vaguely coherent rants on the importance of love and taking care of animals. However, he deserves credit for his astute observations regarding other characters, and is fairly well read despite some of it being beyond his comprehension e.g. ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment''.
157	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The scene at the beginning of the film introduces the five leads acting out their personalities as part of a football game: Sick Boy fouls, and shouts "What?" as if trying to look innocent; Begbie dropkicks one of the opposing team-members, wearing a delighted grin as he gets up; Spud acts as goalie, completely misses an incoming ball and gets yelled at by his own team; Tommy gets caught in a corner and tries valiantly to escape without performing a foul; finally, Renton gets hit in the head with the ball and collapses- all the while narrating sarcastically.
158	* EstablishingCharacterMusic:
159	** The film memorably opens with Renton and Spud being chased down the street by security guards to Music/IggyPop's "Lust for Life".
160	** Renton spots Diane to Sleeper's cover of Music/{{Blondie\|Band}}'s "Atomic".
161	* ExiledToTheCouch: An odd example - after Renton and Diane have sex, she refuses to let him sleep in her bed and sends him to the sofa in the hallway.
162	* TheFilmOfTheBook: The book was made into a movie, but not without a PragmaticAdaptation as the content was deemed unfilmable.
163	* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Begbie in the sequel. He's spent most of The90s in prison and everyone has mobile phones when he gets out, much to his chagrin.
164	* FlatWhat: When Begbie goes picking a fight in a restaurant just for fun and a massive BarBrawl suddenly erupts, the rest of his fellow drug addicts just stand on the balcony overlooking all this mayhem with this reaction on their faces.
165	* FlippingTheBird: The poster includes Begbie giving the V-sign to the viewer.
166	* ForeignCussWord: The film's poster features Begbie delivering a V-sign, which is a vulgar gesture in Britain. The poster certainly wouldn't have been displayed so prominently in America if he were giving a middle finger.
167	* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: [[OnlySaneMan Renton]] is The Cynic, [[ManipulativeBastard Sick Boy]] is The Realist, [[KindHeartedCatLover Spud]] is The Optimist, [[TheSociopath Begbie]] is The Apathetic and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tommy]], who relies on others for validation, is The Conflicted.
168	* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Renton is phlegmatic, Sick Boy is melancholic/choleric, Spud is sanguine, Begbie is extremely choleric and Tommy is leukine.
169	* FreudianExcuse: In the book, Begbie gets some last-minute characterization as it's explained that his father (a derelict alcoholic) abandoned him as a child. Paralleling this is the fashion in which Begbie treats his own children.
170	* FriendlyEnemy: In contrast to his friendship with Renton, Sick Boy has this mode of interaction with Begbie. He views Franco as a crass, vicious thug and tenapenny muscle for more dangerous scams. On Begbie's part, he's morally disgusted with Sick Boy's pimping and heroin related activities, but admires his scheming ways otherwise as it brings in money. Renton hates them both when they decide to socially gang up on him, stealing both female attention and parental affection.
171	-->''It nauseates Renton to see Begbie and Sick Boy playing the great mates, as all they usually generally do is to get on each other's tits.''
172	* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Begbie clearly terrifies his "friends" with his Hair-Trigger Temper. When Renton flees his former lifestyle, Begbie tracks him down and becomes TheThingThatWouldNotLeave.
173	* FriendToPsychos: They don't exactly have to dispose of bodies for Begbie, but his so-called mates are forced into justifying his psychotic fits and bizarre actions as a cowardly form of insurance against his variable temper.
174	* FunWithSubtitles:
175	** In the film, a scene set in a club uses a more realistic audio balance of club music and the characters talking, and as such features subtitles included to let the audience know what they're saying.
176	** Also, if you watch the movie with the subtitle track, certain lines of dialogue have been changed to sound somewhat cynical. The best example is "the worst place in London" being subtitled as "one of London's most desirable properties".
177	* FunetikAksent:
178	** The book uses this trope so extensively it take most people several chapters before they can fully understand anything. While there are a few chapters narrated in standard English (from a third person omniscient perspective), most are from a various first person points of view and written in that character's particular brand of thick Edinburgh Scottish.
179	** Several characters, particularly Spud, not only have incredibly thick Scottish accents but also use odd slang and expressions and verbal tics making chapters from his perspective particularly difficult to follow.
180	* GambitRoulette: Used and lampshaded in the novel's ''Bad Blood'' chapter, where the HIV-positive character Davie pulls this on Alan Venters, the man who gave the HIV to the former's girlfriend by raping her, thus leading to Davie's own contraction of the virus. His plan is to make friends with a dying Venters, so that he is allowed to visit him in hospital, and also seduces the mother of the rapist's only son so that one day she may trust him enough to let him babysit for her. When this happens, [[spoiler: Davie drugs the child with a sleep-inducing substance and takes pictures of him, making it look like he violently raped and murdered the boy. Then he shows the pictures to Venters on his deathbed and suffocates him with a pillow, thus filling his last moments in life with immeasurable suffering]]. ThePlan depended greatly on random chance (most significantly on Venters staying alive long enough for all the pieces to fall into place), a fact that Davie is well aware of.
181	* GentileJewChaser: Spud's plans for his cut of the money involve settling down with a beautiful, rich Jewish princess.
182	* GoingColdTurkey: Renton tries to break free of his heroin addiction this way, but doesn't go all the way. After his overdose, however, his parents lock him in his room and force Cold Turkey on him.
183	* GoodTimesMontage: In the film, there's a cool montage when Spud, Renton, and Sick Boy start using heroin again. Predictably, though, the good times don't last.
184	* GroinAttack:
185	** Renton does this to a pitbull with an air rifle.
186	--->For a vegetarian, Mark, you're a fucking EVIL shot.
187	** Begbie goes for the groin on a few occasions.
188	* HairTriggerTemper: Francis Begbie is almost as dangerous to his "mates" as he is to everyone else. Renton even outlines a number of Begbie's myths that the gang must play along with so as not to get beaten up.
189	* {{Hallucinations}}: When Renton goes Cold Turkey, he experiences several heroin-induced (and heroin-withdrawal-induced) hallucinations.
190	* HappilyEverBefore: The stage adaptation ends with Renton moving to London, swearing to go clean and avoid his drug addict friends. This omits him reconnecting with them for a drug deal and then stealing their shares of the money.
191	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Tommy and Second Prize. Renton and Sick Boy prior to ''Porno''. [[spoiler:They reaffirm their friendship by the end of ''T2: Trainspotting'', in contrast to the ending of ''Porno'', where Renton burns his bridges with Sick Boy for good after finding out he intended to sic Begbie on him all along]].
192	* HomageShot:
193	** The shot of Sick Boy's finger ringing Renton's doorbell in London is almost identical to a shot in ''Film/ShootThePianoPlayer''.
194	** The last scene with Spud getting the money in the locker is almost identical to a scene in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica''. Even the circumstances behind the scenes are very similar.
195	* HomePornMovie: Renton makes off with one made by Tommy and Lizzie. Hilarity does not ensue.
196	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Some of the more chilling heroin problems are narrated by Renton in, well, Junk Dilemmas No. 63-67, with italics for emphasis. He only manages to get up to Straight Dilemmas No. 1 by the end of the novel, although his chapters in Porno could easily have been named as such. More significantly, each grouping of chapters juxtaposes Renton's long and hard transition from a full time junky to a reforming addict against his need to leave Leith behind: Kicking, Relapsing, Kicking Again, Blowing It, Exile, Home and Exit.
197	* HorribleHousing: Used to symbolize the use of drugs. For most of the film, the main characters live together in a heroin den that's an apartment in an abandoned building with almost no light, filth everywhere, and exposed insulation. Once Tommy starts doing drugs, he moves from a fairly normal apartment into a place like that. Once Mark gets clean and into a straight job (ironically real estate, where he's showing off fancy apartments), he moves into a small but clean studio, signifying his rise in life- which quickly becomes more hovel-like once his old junkie friends move in with him.
198	* ImprobableWeaponUser: As an accomplished brawler, Begbie makes plenty of use of these. The book mentions that he has an arsenal of Stanley knives, knuckledusters, sharpened screwdrivers, and knitting needles (because there's less chance they get stuck in the victim's ribcage). Renton states that he does not actually rate Begbie as a terribly strong fighter without his blades.
199	* ImprovisedWeapon: Begbie carries around sharpened knitting needles in the book, and is said to be not much cop when it comes to a fair fight without weapons.
200	* InDaClub: Well, sort of, since there are two clubbing scenes, but it's subverted. The music isn't always banging, the lighting isn't always perfect, and not everyone is attractive, stylishly dressed, or having fun. Least of all Renton.
201	* IndirectKiss: Near the end of the film, Begbie orders Renton to give him a cigarette, and just stands there waiting with his mouth open until Renton puts it in his own mouth to light it, and then puts it in Begbie's. While this could just be a display of dominance and control (which is well within Begbie's character), WordOfGay is that they imagined Begbie as an ArmoredClosetGay, so this trope was certainly intended.
202	* InformedAttribute:
203	** An in-universe example: Begbie fondly says of Mark: "This is a useless bastard; but he's goat style. A man ay wit. A man ay class. A man not unlike my good self". Immediately following this, Mark snarkily narrates: "Begbie always constructed imaginary qualities in his friends, then shamelessly claimed them for himself". He also notes that in spite of Begbie's fearsome reputation, he's not that good at fighting without using a weapon.
204	** A more subtle one: Renton is, presumably, ''supposedly'' good at [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball football]]. We never really get to see his skills, but he does wear the sacred #10 jersey.
205	* IronicEcho:
206	** The "Choose Life" speech. The first time Renton delivers it, he's being sarcastic and cynical. The second time, he's fully sincere about living that life.
207	** In the movie, the opening chase scene is replayed again with different music and narration after the baby dies, with devastating effect.
208	* JailbaitTaboo: Mark Renton has sex with Diane, discovering the next morning that she is fifteen when she appears in her school uniform and her "flatmates" are actually her parents. Later, she threatens to tell the police if he does not see her again.
209	* JewishAmericanPrincess: Spud has a fetish for Jewish princesses, apparently acquired through listening to Music/FrankZappa as he mentions Moon Unit Zappa and alludes to Zappa's other songs "Catholic Girls" and "Valley Girl" in the same chapter.
210	* JumpCut: The film uses jump cuts in one scene as a metaphor for the POV of a character under the influence of speed.
211	* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Not exactly, since the "heroes" are the ones who introduced him to the habit in the first place, but Tommy goes from soothing the pain of a breakup with drugs to ruining his entire life with drugs in the space of a few scenes.
212	* KarmaHoudini: By the end of the story Renton in particular escapes any particular punishment.
213	* LiteralMetaphor: Early in the film, when Renton goes to Mikey Forrester to get his last hit, Mikey gives him opium anal suppositories instead. Realizing that they're the closest thing to heroin that he's going to get, Renton takes them and inserts them into his anus. Cue the following exchange:
214	-->'''Mikey:''' Aye, you feel better the now right? \
215	'''Renton:''' Oh, yeah, for all the good they've done me [[LiteralMetaphor I might as well have stuck them up my arse]]!
216	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The chapter titled ''The Skag Boys'' is probably a reference to ''The Slab Boys'', a trilogy of plays by the Glaswegian painter and writer John Byrne.
217	* MaleFrontalNudity: Both Renton and Spud in the film.
218	* ManlyTears: In the film, Sick Boy sheds them when Baby Dawn is found dead from starvation and neglect (because he was the father). No one else does, though they are all in utter shock.
219	* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: The two couples in the loud club, when the girls go to the bathroom and the boys remain at the table. Both talk about their relationships with the other, then claim to be talking about safer and more stereotypical subjects when the girls return.
220	-->"What are you two talking about?" \
221	[Glance at each other] "Football. What are you talking about?" \
222	"Shopping."
223	* MatchCut: In the opening of the film, two shots of Renton falling to the ground are intercut; the first is when he gets hit in the head by a football, and the second is when he takes heroin in his home and falls to the floor as the drug takes its course.
224	* MathematiciansAnswer: "And where're you going Diane?" "Home." "Where's that then?" "It's where I live".
225	* MoodWhiplash: Over and over again.
226	* MinimalistCast: The play only has four actors portraying multiple roles.
227	* MushroomSamba: Inverted - most of the characters' hallucinations take place when they AREN'T on drugs, and aren't pleasant at all.
228	* NailedToTheWagon: Renton has his parents lock him in his room to force himself through withdrawal.
229	* TheNapoleon: In the book, Begbie is a tattooed and physically massive bully, but director Danny Boyle cast the relatively short Robert Carlyle on the belief that smaller guys are more dangerous.
230	* NearMissGroinAttack: Begbie slams Renton against a wall and stabs directly under his crotch when the latter makes a joke about Begbie nearly hooking up with a trans woman. The threat is clear, but Begbie clarifies that he'll castrate Renton if he says another word.
231	* NewMediaAreEvil: In ''T2'' during his "choose life" rant Renton expresses his strong disdain for social media.
232	* NightmareFace: The scariest thing we see of Baby Dawn after she dies is her soulless, discolored face.
233	* NightmareSequence: Renton ends up locked in his old bedroom by his parents to be forced through withdrawal, and as a result suffers vividly unnerving hallucinations; although they aren't ''all'' terrifying, the scariest one has to be Baby Dawn crawling on the ceiling and [[ExorcistHead turning its head 180 degrees]] before suddenly falling on Renton.
234	* NobodyPoops:
235	** Thoroughly averted in a disgusting scene where Spud has a hilarious accident with shit, piss and vomit (in the book, semen as well - and Davie is the victim, rather than Spud).
236	** Also averted in Renton's sudden attack of diarrhea where he soils his pants. In the film, he goes diving into a filthy public toilet. The filmmakers in the commentary note that the water he swims in was supposed to look disgusting and filled with excrement, but it actually looks quite pleasant.
237	* NoPeriodsPeriod: Even more thoroughly and explicitly averted than NobodyPoops, and even more {{Squick}}tastic. In fact, almost every chapter narrated by a female character features an aversion of this. (Welsh possibly has some difficulty writing female characters).
238	* NoPreggerSex: The book has a scene which both averts this and has the sort of imagery that shows why this trope is {{Squick}} to some people; Mark is having sex with his dead brother's pregnant girlfriend and his narration says he gets a mental image of him being so far up inside her that the foetus is simultaneously giving him a blowjob. He says the image "torments" him, but he keeps going anyway. Given that he knows he is shagging her (in a toilet at said dead brother's funeral!) to get back at his hated brother anyway, the image just serves to highlight his self-aware degradation.
239	* NonIndicativeName: At no point in the film do the characters watch trains. The title has more relevance in the original novel, however. It's alluded to in one of the trailers as well, but in a way that has nothing to do with either the the book ''or'' the film.
240	* OhCrap:
241	** Begbie's reaction in the movie when he discovers that the girl he just picked up [[UnsettlingGenderReveal isn't quite what she seems]]. As it comes [[MoodWhiplash shortly after a lot of extremely dark stuff]] it's [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments quite a welcome change of mood.]]
242	--->'''Begbie''' Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck... [[ClusterFBomb FUCK!]]
243	** Mikey Forrester wakes up with this reaction after realising that he drunkenly bought two kilos of heroin off a pair of Russian sailors and has to get rid of it.
244	* OnceMoreWithClarity: The film opens InMediasRes with a scene of Renton, Spud, and Sick Boy running from the police, set to "Lust for Life" by Music/IggyPop, giving it a jaunty, madcap tone. Later on, the same scene is shown again, in correct chronological order, in the wake of Sick Boy's baby's death, this time set to "Sing" by Music/{{Blur}}. The changed circumstances and music suggest the increasingly unhappy and desperate group of friends is starting to break down. The second time around also reveals that Renton was tackled and arrested by the second policeman chasing him.
245	* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Renton has Davie the father, Wee Davie the disabled brother, and Davie the workmate/friend.
246	* ParentalAbandonment: In the book, Begbie abandons his and June's son. He's previously had kids with other women as well. It's implied that the same thing happened to him as a child; Renton and Begbie run into an "auld drunkard" in a train station who Renton only later realizes was Begbie's father (this scene also provides the book's title, as Begbie's father asks the two if they are "trainspottin'").
247	* ParentalIncest: Hazel let slip to Mark she'd suffered from this as a girl, making sex with her near-impossible from lingering trauma.
248	* PhonyVeteran: In the book (and in a DeletedScene from the film), Swanny, after losing his leg, is reduced to begging, while claiming he lost his leg in the Falklands War.
249	* PosthumousCharacter: Mark's heavily disabled brother Davie. He's present in ''Literature/{{Skagboys}}'', until his unfortunate passing.
250	* PottyEmergency: Renton's leads to his encounter with the famed "Worst Toilet In Scotland".
251	-->'''Renton:''' (narrating) Heroin makes you constipated. The heroin from my last hit was fading, and the suppositories had yet to melt.\
252	[moans loudly, doubles over]\
253	'''Renton:''' I'm no longer constipated.
254	* PottyFailure: Spud has a memorable one, when he fills his girlfriend's bed with thin alcohol-vomit, semen, piss and diarrhea. When the girlfriend's mother tries to take the soiled bedsheets, Spud is so embarrassed he holds them back, and they get into a tugging match - which ends with the whole family getting sprayed with it.
255	* PragmaticAdaptation: The screenwriter John Hodge has said he considered the book unfilmable, so huge amounts were cut and new bits added to give the remaining fragments some sense of being part of an actual narrative.
256	* PsychoSidekick: [[TattooedCrook Nelly]] is this to Franco, along with other psychos like [[Literature/MarabouStorkNightmares Lexo]] and [[Literature/{{Filth}} Ghostie Gorman]].
257	* RailEnthusiast: The title comes from a chapter in the novel called "Trainspotting at Leith Central Station". The joke is that the station is long-closed and derelict, so trainspotting there is an utterly pointless, dull, and squalid experience, like most things the characters do.
258	* RealityHasNoSubtitles: The film has both the foreign slang and the incomprehensibility.
259	* ReallySeventeenYearsOld: Mark meets Diane in a club and they go back to her place for a one-night-stand. He crashes on the sofa and the next morning meets whom he assumes to be her flatmates. They're her parents and, to Mark's horror, Diane enters wearing a school uniform. Naturally, he refuses to see her again, but she threatens to go to the police if he doesn't.
260	* RecoveredAddict: Mark in the movie gets NailedToTheWagon and eventually manages to stick with it.
261	* RecurringExtra: Dawsy, Mony, Moysie, Saybo, Shaun and Sully are generic, nondescript members of the gang's extended circle of friends who appear sporadically throughout all three books.
262	* RevengeIsADishBestServed: In the novel, a girl jobbing in a restaurant is hit on by some drunken English {{Jerkass}} tourists. She retaliates by putting all kinds of squicky stuff in their food, from blood-soaked tampons to urine.
263	* SameLanguageDub: The first 20 minutes of the film were redubbed to make the thick Scottish accents comprehensible to an American audience. The Region 1 DVD releases restored the original audio. Interestingly, the subtitles (or at least the Netflix ones) have the original slang; bird/girl, post/mail, skag/smack etc.
264	* SceneryPorn: Perhaps it is shite being Scottish, but ''damn'' if the highlands aren't gucking forgeous.
265	* SecondFaceSmoke: Begbie demands a cigarette from Renton after attacking a man who spilled his beer (and Spud, when he "got in [his] way"). Renton obliges and lights his cigarette for him, only for Begbie to blow the smoke in his face to show him who's in charge of the whole operation. While Renton had been thinking about stealing the money from the heroin sale for a while now as opposed to dividing it among the four of them as intended, it's this incident that pushes him over the edge and gives him the nerve to steal the money. Fortunately for Spud, he got his share of the money owed to him.
266	* SeinfeldianConversation: Sick Boy talking about the different aspects of Franchise/JamesBond.
267	* SexEqualsLove: Averted with Mark and Dianne in both the novel and film adaption. [[spoiler:That said, they end up together at the end of ''Porno,'' making this trope applicable even though it takes them ten years to get there.]]
268	* SexMontage: The film sees the lads go home from a night clubbing to have sex with their respective partners - Renton and Diane have sex at her place, then she chucks him out; Tommy and Lizzie decide to watch their own sex tape while doing it, only to discover that it's been replaced; and Spud passes out drunk, living Gail unsatisfied.
269	* SgtPeppersShoutOut: In the film, Renton and his friends are waiting at a railway station, with one of them facing the camera with his back, just like Paul does on the back cover of the album.
270	* ShoutOut:
271	** The scene where Renton dives in a toilet is a reference to Creator/ThomasPynchon's 1973 novel ''Literature/GravitysRainbow''.
272	** The opening chase scene after the robbery is a nod to Music/TheClash's video for "Bankrobber", in which the bank robbers in the video are being chased in a similar fashion and similar camera shot. Boyle also cited the Creator/SpikeJonze-directed music video for "Sabotage" by Music/TheBeastieBoys as a major influence on the opening sequence.
273	** The nightclub is decorated with images from ''Film/TaxiDriver'' and resembles the Korova Milk Bar from ''Film/AClockworkOrange''. In fact, the cinematography from the latter is homaged quite a bit.
274	** When Renton is hallucinating his bedroom extends and becomes larger than it actually is, much like how Pink's hotel room "extends" in the "Don't Leave Me Now" sequence in ''Film/TheWall''.
275	* SickbedSlaying: In the book, Alan Venters rapes a girl and knowingly infects her with HIV, which she then unknowingly passes to her boyfriend, Davie. He conceals his knowledge and initiates a fake friendship with Venters as he is dying in hospital, visiting him frequently. He then creates a set of fake photographs which appear to show the horrific rape and murder of Venters's son (the only being besides himself that he cares about) and shows these to Venters before smothering him with a pillow, filling the last moments of Venters' life with anguish.
276	* SingleIssuePsychology: Subverted: when Mark is undergoing rehab he sees a succession of psychologists and counselors, each of whom try to attribute his heroin addiction to a single event in his life or facet of his personality (guilt over his brother Davie's death, his refusal to integrate himself into society). Mark, to his credit, doesn't believe a word of it.
277	* SmugStraightEdge: Second Prize, Begbie and Tommy initially take this attitude, pouring scorn on their junkie mates. As it turns out though, they're not much better. Second Prize drinks like a fish, above and beyond any other character. Begbie is a heavy drinker, coke and speed user, and of course has his violence addiction. And Tommy has done every recreational drug available... [[spoiler:up to and including the skag, to his great cost.]]
278	* SocialServicesDoesNotExist: Allison's daughter, Dawn, dies of neglect due to her parents being drug addicts... where was Social Services, whom could've prevented this?
279	** Perhaps Averted, somewhat: these heroin users are hardly on the grid, residing in this highly illegal drug squat.
280	* TheSociopath:
281	** Begbie, an AxCrazy psychopath who [[DisproportionateRetribution glasses a man for spilling his pint]], carries around sharpened knitting needles to stab people with, and [[DomesticAbuser beats his pregnant girlfriend]], all without a hint of remorse.
282	** Sick Boy is a borderline example: he [[ManipulativeBastard manipulates everyone]], pimps out young girls, and is [[SmallNameBigEgo completely self absorbed]]. Despite this, he is shown to have [[PetTheDog some]] [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas redeeming]] [[FreudianExcuse qualities]], though these are mostly pushed aside by his opportunistic nature and growing heroin addiction.
283	** Alan Venters, a [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rapist]] and [[DomesticAbuser wife beater]] who knowingly infects a girl with HIV and shows no remorse for his actions is a pretty clear cut example. His one redeeming trait is [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his love for his son]].
284	* SociopathicHero: Begbie's friends try to treat him this way, though he turns his rage on them often enough.
285	* SoundtrackDissonance:
286	** Music/LouReed's "Perfect Day" plays as Renton has a near-fatal heroin overdose, though the song is probably about Lou Reed's heroin addiction.
287	** The same footage of the group running from the police and Renton being hit by a car is used twice. Once at the start of the film with "Lust For Life" by Music/IggyPop being used at the background music, and again with "Sing" by Music/{{Blur}} taking its place. The change in soundtrack significantly changes the mood of the scene from funny and hedonistic to sad and desperate.
288	* SpiritualSuccessor: According to Creator/DannyBoyle there's a sly connection between this film and his previous film ''Film/ShallowGrave''. Keith Allen portrays a drug dealer in both films — with the intention that we think he may be the same character in both, as ''Trainspotting'' was supposed to take place in the late 1980s before the occurrences in ''Shallow Grave''.
289	* StealthSequel: Stealth prequel to ''Shallow Grave'' as mentioned above.
290	* StimulantSpeedtalk: Spud deliberately tanks a job interview with a little help from a packet of cocaine (AKA Morningside Speed) to make himself so hyperactive and over-eager they won't want to hire him. As a result, he spends the interview gibbering on about schools he went to and going on lengthy digressions that don't endear him to the interviewers, meaning that he fails the interview in a way that makes it look like he genuinely tried, so he continues to get dole money.
291	* SwitchingPOV: In all three books in the trilogy, each chapter is narrated by a different character, with Renton being the most prominent narrator in ''Trainspotting'', Sick Boy being the most prominent in ''Porno'', with the two getting more or less an equal share of focus in ''Skagboys''.
292	* SymbolicDistance: In the film adaptation, Liz and Tommy's already-strained relationship finally collapses after it looks like their homemade porn film has accidentally been returned to the video shop with Tommy's other rented tapes (In reality, it was pinched by Renton). We don't see the ensuing breakup, but it's illustrated by a scene in which the two ex-lovers are found standing in the street the next morning, waiting for the bus with roughly ten feet between them -- [[SilentTreatment in total silence]], with Liz too disgusted to even look at Tommy.
293	* TallPoppySyndrome: Self-inflicted by Renton.
294	* TelevisionGeography: The film is set in Edinburgh, right? Then what can explain the scene where Renton and Diane come out of the nightclub and it is revealed to be the very distinctive exterior of the Volcano... which is Glasgow, a good fifty miles from Edinburgh?
295	* TextualCelebrityResemblance: In the book, Renton is said to resemble footballer Alex [=McLeish=], while Sick Boy and Tommy are said to look like Creator/StevenSeagal and Creator/HarrisonFord respectively.
296	* ThereIsOnlyOneBed:
297	** In the film, Begbie robs a jewellery shop with a [[WeaponForIntimidation replica pistol]] and hides out in Renton's bedsit. They end up having to share the bed, where Begbie twitches and convulses in his sleep. When Sick Boy joins them and the three of them end up sharing, Renton decides he's had enough and sends them to a flat he has trouble renting out.
298	** In the book, Renton ends up in the dilapidated basement apartment of an Italian homosexual he meets at a porn cinema, they share the only bed, Renton expecting that, since they're both fully clothed, nothing can happen. He wakes up a few hours later with a face-full of the guy's semen.
299	* ThrowTheDogABone: Spud spends most of the movie as a [[TheUnintelligible semi-coherent]] [[ButtMonkey walking joke]], but in the end [[spoiler:he's the only one who gets sent his fair share of the loot from Renton]].
300	* TitleDrop: In the book, Renton, and Begbie come across an old drunk at a train station, who is revealed to be Begbie's father. He asks them, "What yis up to, lads? Trainspotting?" This scene is recollected in the film's sequel.
301	* TitledAfterTheSong: Some of the chapters are named after songs or lyrics - "[[Music/IggyPop Scotland Takes Drugs in Physic Defense]]", [[Music/TheSmiths There Is a Light That Never Goes Out]]" and "[[Music/DavidBowie Station to Station]]".
302	* TwoScenesOneDialogue: The scene in the night club with Spud and Tommy by the dance floor and Spud's "girlfriend" and Lizzie in the ladies' room.
303	* UnconventionalFormatting: In the novel, slightly unusual textual layouts when Renton is hallucinating because of withdrawal.
304	* UndiscriminatingAddict: Renton notes that whilst not on heroin, he and his friends are busy looking for just about anything with similar effects. After going through some of the NHS sources relied upon in lean times, he rattles off a long list of substitute opioids to be used when not in possession of real junk, including things like anti-vertigo medication.[[note]]One of the drugs he mentions, diamorphine, is basically medical-grade heroin[[/note]]
305	-->'''Renton:''' Fuck it, we would have injected vitamin C if only they'd made it illegal.
306	* TheUnfettered: Sick Boy. Chapters narrated from his perspective showcase his disdain for society and his friends, and he has no qualms or regrets about using other people. Renton later says of Sick Boy: "He doesnae care. Because he doesnae care, he cannae be hurt. Never".
307	* TheUnintelligible:
308	** Spud, particularly when he's been shooting up. For most of the movie, an incoherent Scottish mush comes out of his mouth that's impossible to understand for people outside Edinburgh. In the book, his narrated chapters feature the thickest dialect.
309	** Begbie's chapters in the books are often unreadable because he's so full of profanity and swears so much at the expense of actually describing what's going on. A particularly memorable chapter is the very short one in which every single person is referred to as 'that [[CountryMatters cunt]]' with maybe the odd character attribute thrown in to help you along your way.
310	* UnusualEuphemism: The "Morningside speed" Spud takes for his job interview is a slang term for cocaine. Morningside is one of the more affluent suburbs of Edinburgh, with the implication that people there are rich enough to afford cocaine rather than using amphetamines.
311	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Tommy and Lizzie's relationship might have been on very shaky ground already, but Renton secretly swapping their personal pornotape pushes it over the edge as Tommy cannot explain why it is missing and can't deny that someone else might have gotten their hands on it when he and Lizzie discover the swap. The lonely Tommy turns to drugs in an attempt to mend his broken heart, decays severely both physically and mentally, gets infected with HIV after using drugs for just a few months, sinks into extreme poverty, suffers a stroke, and finally dies completely alone while lying in a pool of his own sick, and his body is first discovered when the neighbours complain about the smell.
312	* TheVerse: A rough example. All of Irvine Welsh's books take place in the same universe, so the ''Trainspotting'' characters sometimes have fleeting cameo appearances in Welsh's other works. The extremely disturbing book ''Marabou Stork Nightmares'' (which is NauseaFuel on paper) was his second book, and the rapist Lexo from that book makes an appearance in this one. Scary as he is, he is terrified of his "friend" Frank Begbie.
313	** Danny Boyle has implied that ''Film/ShallowGrave'' is also set in this (cinematic) universe.
314	* ViolentGlaswegian: BEGBIE, and plenty more besides.
315	* VitriolicBestBuds: Renton and Sick Boy. In the book, Renton notes that the back-and-forth insults which began as jokes are becoming more and more deeply meant. By the end of the novel it becomes barely concealed mutual hatred come Porno.
316	-->''In a way, Sick Boy would understand, even have a grudging admiration for his actions. His main anger would be directed at himself for not having the bottle to do it first.''
317	* TheVoiceOfAGeneration: Not just the book and the film itself, video analysis like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NShEnbNeBA this one]] spots that ''Trainspotting'' is called as "the voice of a generation", as the intro speech Renton says in the first minutes.
318	* VorpalPillow: Davie's killing of Alan Venters is carried out by this method.
319	* WateringDown: Inverted. Renton's usually compensates for the fact that Seeker usually cuts any heroin he sells by upping his dosage per hit. He overdoses when the gear he gets is actually pure (or less cut at least).
320	* WeaponForIntimidation: "Armed robbery?! With a replica?!"
321	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At the drug deal in London, the dealers are there with another man who goes into the bathroom to test the stuff. Once the deal is done, the dealers leave, but the tester never leaves the bathroom.
322	* WhereDidWeGoWrong: Renton's parents had this basic reaction towards his addiction.
323	* WholesomeCrossdresser: Begbie makes out with a "woman" in his car for a while before discovering it's a man.
324	* WithFriendsLikeThese:
325	** Everyone is terrified of Begbie, and they all understand that he could turn on them at the drop of a hat. In the book, Renton elaborates that Begbie's friends have to pretend to believe several myths about him to keep in his good graces.
326	** It can be reasonably argued that Renton's mates as a whole are ironically the antagonists in Renton's story (especially in the film). Both versions end with Renton concluding that [[spoiler: he must cut all ties with them if he's to have a chance at leading a fulfilling life.]]
327	* WordSaladTitle: The title seems to be nonsensical, but it's a shortening of the original short story's title "Trainspotting at Leith Central Station". The joke is that the station is long-closed and derelict, so trainspotting there is an utterly pointless, dull and squalid experience, like most things the characters do. No one "[[RailEnthusiast trainspots]]" or even says the word in the film. In the book there is a brief scene where an old drunk later implied to be Begbie's father asks Renton and Begbie if they are trainspotting. The term is a slang reference to a junkie's search for a vein to inject drugs in. Fans often speculate as to the various levels of significance the title has to the story's themes.
328	* WouldHitAGirl:
329	** Begbie and Alan Venters certainly will and do. Subverted by Second Prize: when he sees Venters beating up his girlfriend in the pub, he remembers his dad telling him never to hit a girl, advice he claims to have followed; but then observes that holding his girlfriend so she can't walk away from their arguments doesn't really count. Renton disagrees, and says it's the same principle.
330	** Also, when Second Prize and Tommy try to stop Venters publicly beating up his girlfriend, the woman suddenly turns into a ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend, and viciously attacks Tommy with her nails. Even though he's shocked by the sudden assault, his "don't hit girls" instinct is so strong that instead of doing anything to her, he turns around and punches Venters instead.
331	* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mark Renton meets Diane in a club, then goes to her house where they have sex. Immediately after the act she kicks him out of her room and he sleeps on a sofa. In the morning it's revealed that she's underage. She even threatens to report him for sex with a minor if he doesn't see her again[[note]]Renton is either unaware of, or too drugged-up to realize, the fact that meeting her in a club pretty clearly indicates that she ''should'' be of age, or else not have been allowed in. A public defender (or whatever the Scottish equivalent is) 10 minutes out of law school would get him out of any trouble she tried to get him in. Sleeping with her again ''after'' he knows her true age, on the other hand . . . [[/note]].

Context Literature / Trainspotting