Trainspotting (1996)
94%RT Audience Score: 93%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 1 Oscar
23 wins & 35 nominations total
A brutal, often times funny, other times terrifying portrayal of drug addiction in Edinburgh. Not for the faint of heart, but well worth viewing as a realistic and entertaining reminder of the horrors of drug use.
Trainspotting is a wild ride that will leave you feeling like you just got off a rollercoaster. With its pitch-black humor, brutal recklessness, and frisky energy, this film is a ghoulish hoot that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Despite being about aimless addicts, the characters have such strong personalities that they stand out and make you sympathize with them in some ways. But don’t be fooled, Trainspotting also shows the terrifying and surreal lows of withdrawal, as well as the real-life consequences of addiction. So buckle up and get ready for a ride you won’t forget!
Production Company(ies)
Channel Four Films, Figment Films, The Noel Gay Motion Picture Company,
Distributor
Miramax Films
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Corrour Station, Highland, Scotland, UK
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for graphic heroin use and resulting depravity, strong language, sex, nudity and some violence
Year of Release
1996
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby SR
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 34m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Jul 19, 1996 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 1, 2004
Genre(s)
Comedy/Drama
Keyword(s)
Worldwide gross: $16,767,475
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $32,004,843
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,520
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 3,490,168
US/Canada gross: $16,491,080
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $31,477,275
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,261
US/Canada opening weekend: $262,673
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $501,376
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,402
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): £1,500,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Ewan McGregor – Mark “Rent-boy” Renton
Ewen Bremner – Daniel “Spud” Murphy
Jonny Lee Miller – Simon David “Sick Boy” Williamson
Kevin McKidd – Tommy MacKenzie
Robert Carlyle – Francis (Franco) Begbie
Kelly Macdonald – Diane
Director(s)
Danny Boyle
Writer(s)
John Hodge
Producer(s)
Andrew Macdonald
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 Oscar
23 wins & 35 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (88) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (80) | Rotten (8)
The film finds pitch-black humor, horror, tragedy, and violence in a series of asides and digressions.
July 5, 2021
Chris Cabin
Slant Magazine
TOP CRITIC
What’s interesting, viewing the film now, is how it manages to be both inarguably of its time, the mid 90s, but also has not dated nearly as badly as most youth culture movies tend to.
January 16, 2017 | Rating: 4/5
Wendy Ide
Observer (UK)
TOP CRITIC
Trainspotting is supercharged with sulphurous humour and brutal recklessness: it charges at you like Ewan McGregor’s Renton sprinting from store detectives in the opening sequence.
January 12, 2017 | Rating: 5/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
Brazen, hilarious, disgusting, audacious, altogether fresh.
June 26, 2013 | Rating: 3/4
Ann Hornaday
Baltimore Sun
TOP CRITIC
An unprecedented and unrivalled piece of entertainment.
June 26, 2013 | Rating: 5/5
Neil Jeffries
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Trainspotting’s saving grace is that there’s a heck of a lot of entertainment value in this particular form of shallowness.
June 26, 2013 | Rating: 4/5
Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel
TOP CRITIC
The film resists a moralized discussion of drug use to instead presents a story whose ugly, darkly comic details pulse with Boyle’s kinetic touch.
March 2, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
The screenplay by John Hodge has this incredibly intoxicating eloquence to it, and despite being aimless addicts, most of the characters in this film have such strong personalities, it just makes them stand out.
August 14, 2021 | Rating: 8.3/10
Nicholas Oon
Maximum Hype (YouTube)
I’ve seen it in all formats — at the movies, on a VCR, on a DVD, streaming– and it still fills me with a giddy appreciation for its director Danny Boyle’s frisky energy, wit, and agility.
July 20, 2021
Kyle Smith
National Review
Trainspotting gives insight into the rationale of an addict and even sympathizes with them in some ways. But viewers are also sucked in to the terrifying and surreal lows of withdrawal, as well as the real life consequences of addiction.
April 1, 2020
Ed Travis
Hollywood Jesus
As in his first film, Shallow Grave, Boyle’s up-your-nose style of filmmaking is a ghoulish hoot.
October 25, 2019
Michael Atkinson
Spin
Like a 20th-century magical realist version of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy narrated by a lad from Edinburgh hooked on skag.
May 1, 2019
C.H. Newell
Father Son Holy Gore…
Plot
A wild, freeform, Rabelaisian trip through the darkest recesses of Edinburgh low-life, focusing on Mark Renton and his attempt to give up his heroin habit, and how the latter affects his relationship with family and friends: Sean Connery wannabe Sick Boy, dimbulb Spud, psycho Begbie, 14-year-old girlfriend Diane, and clean-cut athlete Tommy, who’s never touched drugs but can’t help being curious about them…
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
NA
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