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
I had only seen Trainspotting for the first time several years ago. I remember being quite impressed by it, despite me never going nuts for drug-related films. I was more interested by the style of film- making and well developed characters. It also contain one of the most distressing scenes I have seen in any film.
21 years later, and now we see where the lads are now. I saw the trailer to see if it's going to be worth it, and I was surprised how good it looked. Some of the dialogue I was hearing sounded like we were instantly back in this mad environment. With the trailer doing plenty to get me intrigued, I had pretty solid hopes for a worth sequel.
Amazingly, I felt it managed to all come together. For something that I'm sure Boyle holds very dearly to his heart, you would expect him to never go near this work again. Especially when he has never done a sequel before. But we are now here, and I think everyone did a grand job. I did not get the sense that the makers made this for an easy box office return. I felt it was there to be an actual follow-up to the events from 1996, which is fantastic to see. The tone is definitely being aimed at the people who grew up with the original. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how it works to the generation that are of the age the cast were in the original, and see if it can relate to a broad age range.
The gang are back, and all four of them were great in their performances. Honestly, it was like they had never left. Ewan McGregor holds the film well as Renton, has many strong moments and you can tell he is enjoying getting back in the saddle. Roberty Carlyle continues to be as hilarious as Begbie was back in the day. Ewen Bremner as Spud shines the most for me, was given great development and became such a pivotal part of this sequel. I was really surprised to see Johnny Lee Miller give a great performance, as it is only recently that he has got back into movie acting after being busy with a TV series.
Another thing some sections of the audience like to see with sequels, is the level of nostalgia. The use of that and memory was cleverly done. It felt like it meant something, instead of just making us think "I'd rather be watching the original".
I have only very minor negatives. There were moments that felt a bit scattered at times and did not feel that well connected to the main story.
I was not expecting this to be so enjoyable. Boyle and his done have done a great job by keeping this a down-to-earth story and making feel like it deserves a second installment. I think what the films big strengths are, is what made the original so successful. The characters are still as memorable as ever, the writing is sharp and funny when needed, the visuals are engrossing and impactful, and the soundtrack is strong. They also managed to make the film worth seeing for people who haven't even seen the original, which was impressive to see.
When you think about it, a lot of Danny Boyle's work is about friendship, and this one is no different. I will continue to be excited for his next project, after making what will probably one of the big surprises of 2017. What a start to the year!
Rating: 8/10
- gricey_sandgrounder
- Jan 26, 2017
- Permalink
Everything New on Prime Video in October
Everything New on Prime Video in October
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