Trainspotting Introduction Analysis

Trainspotting is a crime fiction drama film released in 1996. It is the story of 5 men and how their lives are affected by heroin.

This scene introduces the 5 main characters: Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. The first shot is two of them running from cops. The voice-over's thick Scottish accent immediately informs us of where the film is set. The scene jumps between this chase scene, a football scene that is used to introduce 4 of the main characters and a scene of the fifth character smoking heroin in his unfurnished and tattered home, before collapsing on the floor. These events are not chronologically related. The only links between them are the characters involved and the fact that they are showing us their lifestyles. The football scene gives the viewer glimpses of the characters' personalities but nothing much. For example, we know that Degbie is a bit of a twat because he aggressively tackles someone from behind and laughs about it. Spud, as the name suggests, is a bit dim-witted. He looks out of place and a football flies past him into the goal. We can tell that Renton is the main character in the film due to the fact that he is doing the voice-over. He also gets the most screen time.

The audience needs to know who the characters are, where the film is set, the mood of the film and roughly what the film will be about. This all gets them interested straight away, keeping the pace up and grabbing their attention. This introduction does that well.

Not a lot of story information is revealed. The scene sets up the film by introducing the characters, their personalities and lifestyles and giving us a sense of location (Scotland). The fact that the characters are running from police immediately connotes the crime genre and the heroin section is meant to be slightly shocking and attention-grabbing. However, we are not told that Renton is smoking heroin until the very end of the introduction.

"Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a f***ing big television..."

The voice-over is supposed to be very monotonous, listing off the things that the average person is expected to choose in their life. This list steadily goes downhill, listing some of the less desirable aspects of this lifestyle. The listing makes it all seem unnecessary. Then the cycle is broken. As he collapses on the floor the voiceover says, "But why would i want to do a thing like that?" showing there's an alternative: heroin. "Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?"