After 20 years abroad, Mark Renton returns to Scotland and reunites with his old friends Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie.After 20 years abroad, Mark Renton returns to Scotland and reunites with his old friends Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie.After 20 years abroad, Mark Renton returns to Scotland and reunites with his old friends Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie.
- Awards
- 6 wins & 8 nominations
- Veronika
- (as Anjela Nedyalkova)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJonny Lee Miller offered to shave his head to look older, but Danny Boyle insisted that Sick Boy retain his iconic blond hair.
- GoofsWhen Renton meets Simon in his pub he is playing snooker on his own. In the first shot there are only red balls and a black ball . In the next shot a yellow ball appears on the table.
- Quotes
Veronika: What's 'Choose life'?
Renton: What?
Veronika: 'Choose life'. Simon says it sometimes. He says "Choose life, Veronika!"
Renton: 'Choose life'. 'Choose life' was a well meaning slogan from a 1980's anti-drug campaign and we used to add things to it, so I might say for example, choose... designer lingerie, in the vain hope of kicking some life back into a dead relationship. Choose handbags, choose high-heeled shoes, cashmere and silk, to make yourself feel what passes for happy. Choose an iPhone made in China by a woman who jumped out of a window and stick it in the pocket of your jacket fresh from a South-Asian Firetrap. Choose Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and a thousand others ways to spew your bile across people you've never met. Choose updating your profile, tell the world what you had for breakfast and hope that someone, somewhere cares. Choose looking up old flames, desperate to believe that you don't look as bad as they do. Choose live-blogging, from your first wank 'til your last breath; human interaction reduced to nothing more than data. Choose ten things you never knew about celebrities who've had surgery. Choose screaming about abortion. Choose rape jokes, slut-shaming, revenge porn and an endless tide of depressing misogyny. Choose 9/11 never happened, and if it did, it was the Jews. Choose a zero-hour contract and a two-hour journey to work. And choose the same for your kids, only worse, and maybe tell yourself that it's better that they never happened. And then sit back and smother the pain with an unknown dose of an unknown drug made in somebody's fucking kitchen. Choose unfulfilled promise and wishing you'd done it all differently. Choose never learning from your own mistakes. Choose watching history repeat itself. Choose the slow reconciliation towards what you can get, rather than what you always hoped for. Settle for less and keep a brave face on it. Choose disappointment and choose losing the ones you love, then as they fall from view, a piece of you dies with them until you can see that one day in the future, piece by piece, they will all be gone and there'll be nothing left of you to call alive or dead. Choose your future, Veronika. Choose life.
- Crazy creditsThe initial final credits appear over modified scenes of tower blocks and other buildings being demolished. Once the cast credits appear, the background changes to amorphous, swirling, mainly black/ white/ grey shapes.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Film '72: Episode #45.10 (2016)
- SoundtracksShotgun Mouthwash
Performed by High Contrast
Written by Lincoln Jordan Barrett
Courtesy of 3 Beat Productions Ltd / All Around The World
Under license from Universal Music Operations Ltd
Published by 3Beat Music Limited
Administered By Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd
The original Trainspotting was brilliant. Funny, gritty and harrowing it dealt with the issue of drug addiction in a suffocatingly intense yet humorous way. It wasn't just about drug addiction but friendship and, ultimately, about a crime caper and betrayal.
Directed by Danny Boyle, who directed Trainspotting 1, Trainspotting 2 doesn't have the grimness of the first movie, as the drug addiction side is hardly a factor. For me, that is what made Trainspotting 1 a masterpiece, the way it covered drug addiction in a realistic yet humorous manner. T2 is more about friendship and the after-effects of T1's betrayal, resulting it being more of an action-revenge sort of movie.
Plot is good, though there are some contrivances and inconsistencies. Quite emotional at times too, as we see some loops from T1 closed, friends reunited and 40-somethings taking stock of their lives.
Humour-wise, T2 is great, and as good as, if not better than, T1. Some very funny scenes and dialogue.
Not essential that you've watched T1 to follow and enjoy T2, as there are enough flashbacks and other clues to fill you in on what happened in T1. However, watching T1 before T2 certainly would help the experience. There are plenty of side-references and subtle nods to T1 and these enhance the enjoyment of T2.
Overall, a great movie, though not in the same league as Trainspotting 1. Very funny at times, with a good plot and some interesting themes.
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Trainspotting 2
- Filming locations
- Sofia, Bulgaria(final sequence with Veronika at train station)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $18,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,402,004
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $170,575
- Mar 19, 2017
- Gross worldwide
- $41,681,746
- Runtime1 hour 57 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1