a thing to remember is the social significance of this movie here in the UK. our successful movies were usually things with posh folk like hugh grant siting in nice London restaurants, being bumbling and charming while his hair flops about the place. it was crazy to us to see a movie made to a hollywood standard about smack heads from an Edinborough tenement. not often did people shine a light on the British dark underbelly with such style. backed up by a plethora of songs from the 90s vibrant music scene. it inspired alot of us that even though we are 5000 miles from L.A, we can still make movies worthy of classic cinema status.

The biggest accomplishment is the book seemed unfilmable and yet the film is magnificent

I was in the US Navy living in Italy when this came out. My parents were recovering Heroin addicts, so I was keen to see it and had already read the book. The buzz was immense through out Europe and Asia. My ship was in Izmir, Turkey opening weekend and I saw the film there with Turkish subtitles. My dad waited for me to return from leave to see the film on VHS at home (he did the same with me with Pulp Fiction). One of my favorite film of all-time.

This movie is a masterpiece. The cast, script, soundtrack and direction are all perfect.

It wasn’t a day in the life of a druggie, it was a lifetime in a day of a junkie. Thanks for reacting to this.

You should definitely watch the sequel. Set 20 years later, filmed 20 years later and basically entire cast returned. It is 100% the sequel you did not know you needed.

In the end Renton steps over sick boy in the hotel but walks around Spud as he respects him

You never forget your first Danny Boyle 🥰 Trainspotting is a fave. It's stylish, chaotic, and every character feels real. Ewan's narration weaves everything together into a beautiful tapestry of degredation, despair, and hope. Choose life y'all!

A friend of mine vomited uncontrollably at the septic tank scene in Tremors. Naturally, this was the next movie we watched. I still have a scar on my shoulder from that...

Dead baby scene is a real mood-switcher, it's really a before-and-after sort of experience - this is why I love movies that combine genres for maximum emotional impact.

This was my wife and my first date movie. Yes, you read that right. Still together, not sure what that says about us! LOL

Such a stunning movie..I watched it in theaters at 16 (way to young) & it left me speechless & has stuck with me ever since..I remember them taking this out of theaters saying it was glamarizing drug use which is just ridiculous..another great reaction movie bestie ❤ Trainspotting 2 is worth the watch..

This was THE movie when I was in college. The posters, the CD soundtrack, the VHS, it was inescapable.

I was 21 and had been living in London for maybe 6 months when this came out. Everywhere you went you saw the iconic posters of the cast both together, or separately. It looked SO DAMN cool. Went to see it with my then girlfriend in a shitty little cinema in Elephant and Castle (South East London). It was made all the more real by the smell of the weed being smoked by some guys at the back of the theatre 😁😁

I am pleased you watched it. As a Scot who lived in Leith where it is set, it does paint a distressing view of life. There are scenes which are very tough to watch. But it is relatable to me. You did a great job.

The novel was written IN ACCENT. My inner monologue was f***ed for years after reading it.

The injections cause scars on the veins. The scars spots look like train stations marked on the map of their veins. Train spotting.

Trainspotting is such a great movie. I had Renton's rant on a movie poster in my wall in college for a while. I also love how this is how Kelly Macdonald got her start acting, and she is brilliant in it.

Oh, man, in my top ten favorite films of all time and I love watching people experience this for the first time. This is balls out filmmaking and just so great.

Being around the same age as the characters when it first came out really makes the second all the more special. The Electrónica music at the time hit at the height of the era, a classic soundtrack. Shallow Grave is a must see as well but then you would also have to see the Coen's first film, Blood Simple, a major influence.

Every reaction you had was correct. The horror, the humor, the understanding, and the rational. Every scene that you reacted to is something I am familiar with and have experienced, 20 odd years removed.

Best British film ever made, most of it filmed in Glasgow. It's called Trainspotting because needle injection sites of the arm cause track marks....🤦🏼 Nope, it wasn't sped up. That's how quick we speak...😂 When it was released in America it required subtitles 😂😂😂 One of my top 10 films of all time. Outstanding!

This movie is brilliant in how it parallels addiction, in that it starts out all fun and then gradually just dives into darkness.

Ewen Bremner (as he told it on Graham Norton) didn't realise Jonny Lee Miller wasn't a fellow Scot until Jonny "shifted back" to his own voice on a train ride to London after they wrapped.

I went to see a live production of Trainspotting a few years back. It was performed in a nightclub in the round. We were sat behind the worst toilet in Scotland and there was splashback...

So glad you’ve reacted to this, Shanelle! I knew you’d dig it - British independent filmmaking at its most creative. I was a bit too young to see it on first release, but it was impossible to avoid knowing what it was about as it was a legitimate phenomenon when it came out. The poster was everywhere, the soundtrack was the soundtrack of 1996, and it was one of the things that kickstarted the whole “Cool Britannia” cultural renaissance in the UK. I guess it was our Pulp Fiction (though Reservoir Dogs might be a better comparison), and a shot in the arm for the British film industry that opened the doors for a wave of new talent to emerge. I also see it is the spiritual successor to A Clockwork Orange. It shares several themes, has a charismatic young lead, and was misunderstood or outright condemned as being morally abhorrent by many critics, who missed the satire & subtext and chose instead to think that it glorified its subject matter. It also directly references A Clockwork Orange in the nightclub scene where Tommy and Spud are discussing Iggy Pop, so it was wearing its influences on its sleeve! It still makes me chuckle to imagine someone seeing Ewan McGregor in this and saying “Yes, this is the guy we need to play young Obi Wan Kenobi!”

There were some crazy "indie" movies around this time, and this was definitely one of them.

I saw trainspotting at the theater when it came out, my freshman year of college. I had absolutely no idea what it was about. Since the movie starts so abruptly I honestly for a minute thought it was another preview. I was frankly amazed at the cinematography. And of course being an American at first I had no idea what they were saying, and for the next week or so my friends and I talked to each other in horrible attempts at the Scottish accent.

Irvine Welsh, the author of the novel, gets a cameo as Mikey, the skeevy dealer who sells Renton the opium suppositories when he's trying to kick junk. Trainspotting to me is a towering work in cinema that made a huge impression on me when I first saw it in the 90s. It is so bustling with energy, humor and creativity and witty dialogue. It is visually amazing.

Nerd detail: when you hear Renton saying "I haven't felt that good since Archie Gemmill scored against Holland in 1978" upon coming with Diane, you have just witnessed Gemmill's actual scoring from the videotape!

Fantastic! I'm super excited to share this one. It's particular stories and storytelling manner will surely be a trip to watch you take in. Thanks! Here we go! :)

The novel is a MASTERPIECE and has more in common with James Joyce and Samuel Beckett than it does with anything from its own era. It's twice as good if you know your Kierkegaard. The movie cuts a lot out but captures the spirit and style of the novel quite well. One of the few cases where the book and the movie were both awesome.

I've always thought that the 3 best addiction movies were "Trainspotting", "requiem for a Dream", and "Spun". None of them could be considered as glamourizing addiction. They in fact are powerful anti-use messages.

As you saw at the end its based on a novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh, he also has a cameo in the movie as the dealer they buy the drugs from at 21:36.

I love seeing reactions to this one! Mainly because it's great, but also because I live in Edinburgh and I have fun seeing the scenes and saying to myself "Oooh I was just there the other day!"

i love that you caught the Abbey Rd moment......i was just saying to myself how it looked like the Beatles famous shot and then ya said it........i love this lady

You must watch T2. As a 52 year old man who purposely went to this original film on opening day, it is a very important follow up, and still quite relevant.

i haven't seen this in forever, never realized the young girl is the actress from No Country for Old Men

I dare say as much as I love Danny Boyle's other films like Sunshine, Steve Jobs, and 28 Days Later, this is my favorite. Its quintessentially 90s with a great Brit Pop Soundtrack, and the fast styling is reminiscient of Baz Lhurmann but more grimy and disturbing but authentic.

"This is much more my speed." No, no. That's a different drug. 🤣

You NEED to watch Shallow Grave. It's SUCH a great movie!! And if you're talking about Renton, he DID stay clean after the end of the film. I believe that's what Trainspotting 2 establishes.

For those who have seen "Brave": Merida's voice actress is playing Diane here. Make of that what you will. _(evil grin)_

0:55 - "Mine was literally just Harry Potter..." Why am I not surprised? 🤔

If you read the book, the author actually phoenitically spells out the Scottish accent during dialog....It took me awhile to get used to it but once I started remembering/hearing the actor's voices as I read...it came together pretty easily.

My daughter, studying drama at school, had a school trip to the Edinburgh Fringe where she watched Trainspotting acted live in the streets of Edinburgh

First! Ok, now I'm first, this movie was enormous when I was a kid living in Scotland. For some reason, my classmates glorified the drug taking and the bad sides of the movie. Different times.

Since you were a big Harry Potter fan, Spud’s GF, Gail, is played by Shirley Henderson. She played Moaning Myrtle in HP. And to give you an idea of age, this movie came out before HP.

Oh wow. Credit to you for taking this one on. It’s a superb film albeit not easy in any sense. Very interested to see your take on it.

3:50 Trainspotting is the ability to spot a junkie by the tracks on his arms.

Nothing brightens my day like a new Shanelle reaction 🎉🥹

There's a lot of film endings that I love and Trainspotting is definitely one of them!

The other Ewan (Spud) played Renton in the stage play that preceded the movie.

The song at the end is called Born Slippy and it’s a classic!

OMG! So glad I clicked on this! THAT scene, with Ewan sitting down at the table with the parents, and the girl coming out - in her school uniform - has been playing in my head for decades! I (obviously!) haven't watched Trainspotting for a very long time, so had no idea what movie it was from. Now I know.

I remember seeing this in the cinema back in '97 and it was incendiary. A paradigm shift in cinema that hadn't been felt since PULP FICTION..

7:05 As a Scotsman I often wonder how much of what we say is grasped or not by fellow westerners 😅

Trainspotting is an extremely nerdy hobby. People literally sit by the tracks and spot trains. They know all the names andserial numbers of ever train ever built. In the book it's a little more explored that Renton and Sickboy used to be into that.

In Leith in Edinburgh where Irvine Welsh is From there is an abandoned Railway Station where junkies used to go to shoot up. Euphemismisticlly they said they were Trainspotting

I have three major cultural milestones in my life. Star Wars - 11 years old, Prodigy - Music for the Jilted generation - at 15 and Trainspotting at 17.

This is a rough watch, but it’s been one of my favorites since I rented it on video back in’97. It is one of the best anti-drug films ever.

I saw this when it came out. I'm pretty sure that everybody who didn't walk out over the worst toilet in Scotland enjoyed it.

At the start you mentioned being into Harry Potter back in the day. Did you recognise the 3 Harry Potter actors in this movie? Shirley Henderson (Gail, Spud's girl) played Moaning Myrtle, Kelly Macdonald (Diane, Mark's girl) played Helena Ravenclaw and Peter Mullan (Swanney, Mark's supplier) played Yaxley from the Ministry of Magic. To be fair they all look quite different here - it was actually Peter Mullan's deep voice that I recognised...

Ewan McGregor and his friend Charlie Boorman did a great series called The Long Way Around where they ride motorcycles all the way around the world from England to Siberia and Alaska to New York. Then they did one called The Long Way Down from Scotland to the tip of South Africa.

Ewan Bremner, who played Spud, was cast in the film as he'd previously played Renton in the stage version.

Shallow Grave was really good too. The line on the movie poster was "What's a little murder between friends?"

Don't worry at all about not following the accent. Even I struggle with the Edinburgh accent, and it isn't a million miles removed from my own. Actually I think it's seriously toned down from how Irvine Welsh writes it. But it's great to see you watch this - there's only maybe half a dozen classic Scottish movies, and this is one of them.

Trainspotting's soundtrack went platinum. I think it's the best song compilation of the decade, perfectly encapsulating a place and time...While also introducing our gen to the icons Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. Pop's "Lust For Life" became a top 10 song on the UK charts in '96 (the song was written by Iggy and David Bowie and released in 1979!) It also launched Underworld into mega stardom with "Born Slippy NUXX" ounce, ounce, ounce 🔊 🎶

24:12 underworld born slippy CLASSIC trance track!!!! love that tune

A reaction video that genuinely feels like it was filmed during the watch unlike others.

Btw Trainspotting in the literal sense is a hobby where folks stand by a railway station with a note book writing down the number of the locomotives and trainsets they see, trying over time to cross out as many as possible. A bit like bird watching, but with trains. (There are also plane spotters on airports doing the same thing.) Since this is looked upon by others as pretty much the most meaningless thing someone could engage in, it could also in this movie context be a metaphor for an empty life with no sense, purpose or direction. (As a sidenote trainspotting and trainspotter has evolved to be a general description of anyone interested in railways, but since most railway enthusiasts do many other things like just travel by train, restore old vehicles, take pictures, collect railroadiana, or just learn about the subject, it is wrong to call them all trainspotters, but some people still do.)

Spud singing the quiet song after Tommy's funeral proved the solidity of the film's soul. It's not just some frenetic dive into a weird environment, and certainly no lecture from on high. It's a living expression.

That toilet scene gave me PTSD watching this as a child. Oh gods... Great reaction, always good when you pop up in my feed :)

Saw this opening night in Ireland. It was the hedonistic Rave days & about 30 of us went along before going clubbing. The local cinema was dingy & heroin addicts used to go there to shoot up. So it was like an Interactive Experience. Everything was grotty and you were afraid to touch anything. Marketing was amazing coz it was tied in with Britpop, Damien Hurst's Art selling out, we were still coming down from Madchester so Happy Mondays & Stone Roses were still ringing in your ears. The Prodigy, Underworld, Orbital, etc were just getting more advanced by the day. From Roland 808 to putting on powerhouse performances. There were no weekends. Just events and sessions that last days. Trainspotting fitting right in the middle of that. Even the Soundtrack was magic. Pretty much everyone involved went on to have massive careers. Most people don't recognise Kevin McKidd (Tommy) in the US but he's been in Greys Anatomy for 15 years. He also Directs. Irvine Welch still writes and had other books made into movies. But be warned they're not for the faint hearted. Trainspotting 2 is partly based on his book Porno. His book Filth is exactly that. It was so manic & dirty the movie is actually less shocking. And thats no easy task. He used to live a few minutes away from me Dublin so I'd see him around the area. He was friends with a couple I knew through Festival PR too. All in all a pleasant bloke. This movie will always be considered a classic.

born slippy coming in at the end is a true 90s mood.

Really enjoyed that, haven't looked at the film for ages. I'm waving to you from Leith, where Trainspotting is set, in fact the pub from the First Day of the Edinburgh Festival is only two doors down. At the foot of the street there used to be a large disused train station, it closed in 1959, and by the 1980s it was derelict and very spooky, but it was a great place to play if you could find your way in. There was lots of drug gear lying around, because that was where all the 'trainspotting' took place. All around here are the locations where the novel was set, you can still go on local 'Trainspotting' tours... sadly, so are many of the same characters the book was filled with, drugs are still a big problem in Scotland and now our government are talking about full decriminalisation of drugs, they've basically given up trying to solve the problem. One thing I'm slightly suprised you didn't mention was the soundtrack, which was a huge part of the movie's success, so many great tracks, the album was a big hit too...

I've been in that pub in Glasgow (even if the film is set in Edinburgh), which was then called Crosslands. Thankfully, there was no Begbie-type character about! In fact, almost all the movie was shot in Glasgow, apart from the opening scene in Edinburgh and later in London.

Trainspotting is semi autobiographical, Renton represents loose elements of things that happened to Irvine Welsh. Welsh plays Mikey Forester. The guy that buys the drugs is Keith Allen, father of both actor Alfie(Game Of Thrones', Theon Greyjoy) and singer Lily. Rentons dad is played by James Cosmo(Game Of Thrones', Jeor Mormont) Sadly, the little segment of the book that the title comes from is missing from the film. In between each chapter are little mini stories that the book calls, Junk Dilemmas. Usually no more than a paragraph or two, sometimes just a few lines. The Trainspotting segment is one of these, iirc, none of them made it into the film, but then, most of them are pretty brutal. For a non Scot, the book is definitely easier to read if you have seen the film, or if you know someone Scottish, so you can reference the accent....plus its written in dialect, though most versions have a glossary at the back. You'll get used to it fairly quickly once you have a handle on our accent!.

The title Trainspotting is British slang for getting hyper focused and obsessed with one topic (there's a subculture of people in Britain who are obsessed with trains and go out trainspotting to take pictures and notes of what locomotives they saw, etc.), which of course all of the main characters do with their own addictions. It can also be used as slang for shooting up, though, so it's got a dual meaning. I've heard that trainspotting became slang for shooting up because in one city there was an abandoned train station or rail yard where people would go to do drugs, and I've also heard that it's because of the train tracks you get on your arms from injecting heroin into your veins.

07:07: "Come ahead, square go": "Let's fight without weapons." (This is an important proviso, because, as we've seen, Begbie carries a knife and isn't above using beer mugs as missiles.)

A big group of us watched this at the cinema in the north of England when it came out. We were at university at the time. I remember being completely blown away by it, we had never watched anything like it.

The novel is well worth a read. There’s even a Scottish glossary in the back.

Hearing Born Slippy again just took me back....whoosh🙈🧡

I found out about this movie 'cause no one would shut up about it! Most popular british film of that year. Now that's an understatement! I never did watch it in full, just kept catching it halfway in on cable. Since I hate watching movies when they're that deep in I ended up watching a patchwork of scenes over multiple of these "watches". Caught up with most of it thru reaction videos here on KZfaq. One of these days I'm gonna just put it on and watch it in full.

"I can't understand anything he's saying..." Robert Carlyle, who is Scottish, doing Begby's Irish accent 🤣🤣🤣 Jonny Lee Miller (Sickboy) is the only non-Scot in the main cast.

1:26 - From the little I did watch and remember, and other reactors, you pretty much nailed it with that description. All in all, it's like Clerks but in color and a bit better cinematography...but no actual clerks in it. 😋

If you have a hard time understanding the Scottish dialect in the movie, you’ll be freaking out if you try reading the novel haha. It’s 100% written in Scottish slang. And not only the dialogs, but all the inter thoughts and description as well. It’s written first person, so everything is trough his lenses , including the damn bad spelling XD He doesn’t only write in slang, he doesn’t even properly write slang haha. But if you can get past this , and get used to read in slang, it’s an incredibly fascinating and immersive novel

It's a great movie and I really enjoyed your contributions. I didn't realize until watching this that not only is Kelly McDonald in this movie, but it was her major film debut! IMO she's one of the unsung actresses in movies; you've already seen her as James Brolin's wife in No Country For Old Men, and she plays a key role in Gosford Park, not to mention she's the voice of Merida from Disney's Brave.

The carpet represents the feeling of getting high on opiates. You feel like you're sinking into the floor or a warm hug. With Renton, since he's OD'ing. it's also meant to represent his grave. It's not him thinking he's still in the apartment... And, yes, as someone who almost died and spent 1.5 months in the hospital getting multiple shots of Demerol daily and who was also addicted to morphine and vicodin later in life... it does feel better than sex but obviously in a much different way. At least it did to me. And my withdrawals were similar to what's in the film, except when I could stand to I watched Freaks and Geeks, my favorite show and one that I thought would help me feel better. It did but I now break out in a sweat whenever I watch it or hear the Joan Jett theme song, so kinda ruined it for myself a bit. Also, the novel is pretty great. Welsh writes the dialogue in literally a Scottish accent. So, at least in the American version, the novel comes with a glossary. lmao

Movies I remember seeing in random theatres the week of their release without knowing anything about them because I had to kill a few hours for travel reasons would include Die Hard, The Terminator, and Trainspotting. I saw Trainspotting in Vancouver before catching a flight back to Toronto where I soon rented Shallow Grave which Is itself quite good. Trainspotting is one of my favourite films and one of the few films that on first viewing has made me feel a wee bit overwhelmed. It’s relentless onslaught of situations and cinematography reminds me of films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Clockwork Orange, Apocalypse Now, The Shining., Pulp Fiction, No Country For Old Men and almost anything by Japanese directors Takashi Miike (Gozu, Visitor Q) or Sion Sono (Cold Fish, Love Exposure). Thanks for making videos eh.

It was a brilliant movie to watch at the time, half read the book in 93 and loved the movie n then like many went and read the book again! Great stuff bonnie lass What a great movie on so many levels! Starts as a story about young guy's and their friendships and relationships, then moves onto their nihilistic disasters and then turns into a heist movie! This film is legend!!

this film is seared into my brain, as i watched in in the middle of Belfast. back in the day that was a scary place to go for an english person.

The title is something of an orphaned punchline; in the original book, someone the group finds the father of one of the characters in an abandoned train station on a disused rail line; when they ask what he's doing there he says "trainspotting"

It came out the year I left school. I remember it being a phenomenon at the time

I was 11 years old when this came out. I saw it maybe a year later, when it was out on VHS in my country. It messed me up. That baby....I still want to cry at this scene. This movie has sat with me all my life, and for good reason.

I have a 6 foot end of aisle cardboard POP from a video store (my then girlfriend worked at) in my attic. I was the target audience for this film. Gonna show my age here but I was in my early 20's when I first saw this in the cinema in 96, and I own it on VHS, DVD, Bluray, 4k Bluray remaster and I bought the sountrack. My sister had it on Laserdisc and I do still watch it about once a year (It's my guilty pleasure) Shallow Grave is an interesting watch but has the same British dark comedy feel

I saw this when it first came out, and none of the actors were well known in North America so it was a lot harder to convince myself that it was all props and effects. It's a very hard hitting film and by not being able to distance myself it really effected me. and I haven't watched the whole movie since. Requiem for a Dream had the same effect on me and I've only ever watched it once. Both are incredible movies, and should be required viewing for youths of a certain age.Fear and Loathing is another, but the drug use is more fantastical, where as Trainspotting and Requiem are realistic without glamourizing. the lifestyle. Great review.

Mikey forester in the movie is the author of the book Irvine welsh

It’s such an interesting, well-done film. I really enjoyed it when I saw it. But I just cannot bear to sit through it again. Too much disturbing stuff. Man, I love the accents. So cool.

This is one of my top 3 favorite movies! I am so glad you are watching this and excited to see your reaction.

Ah yeah, still one of my favorites! Good reaction!