30 years later, Danny Boyle's Trainspotting remains indelibly relevant.
Written by Paige Irwin
This June, skip your Euphoria rewatch and head to theatres to revisit a classic that is all yuck and no yum. Released in 1996 with a £1.5 million budget, Trainspotting has stood the test of time and remained indelibly relevant. Documenting the nefarious life and choices of Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor), a 26-year-old drug addict in the UK of 1996, Trainspotting sparks a surprising connection to the struggles of today's youth.
"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home." In a post- pandemic world where remote work reigns supreme, yet youth unemployment rates are higher than ever, most of us are struggling to understand exactly how to move forward as adults in this world. How do we choose a job? How do we choose a career? Where can we even find dental insurance? All of these things seem so out of reach for the youth of today, while in 1996, it was supposedly presented as the easy choice, the safe choice. Today, it barely feels possible. So if things are so different, why watch Trainspotting today?
This dazzling 4k restoration breathes new life into the story, with colours so vibrant it is almost reminiscent of the Technicolour golden days. Watching this film in theatres in the year 2026 feels like you are connecting to something eternal. A strikingly 90s visual and editing style, colours and vibrancy straight out of a 1940’s Hollywood musical, all while presenting a world you can see yourself and your peers living in.
Mark and his friends are seemingly presented with this choice: life or drugs, but as the viewer knows and the film exhibits, the choice is not that simple. Perhaps compared to today, the unemployment rate was lower, rent was more attainable, jobs were easier to find, but regardless, anguish seems unavoidable. A friend of Mark's, Tommy (Kevin McKidd), has chosen life. He chose a job, a steady relationship, and he chose to stay clean while surrounded by users. Yet he falls into the trap, he loses his grip and sinks into drug-fuelled abandon with the rest of them. Hence, one of our many connections to today. You are surrounded by people making the "right decisions," but somehow they still stumble. This makes it eminently more difficult to stick to a straight path, to do the "right thing," whether it be in your career, in your personal life, or in your relationship with substances.
Trainspotting was about twenty years too early to touch on the Fentanyl epidemic, but today, students bear witness to Business Majors overdosing on Fentanyl after taking a stimulant from a friend to get through finals season. Mark chooses Life, Mark chooses a job, he puts on a suit, he goes to the office, he works in real estate. Even after all of this, he is pulled back in, he is drawn back to the world of drugs and crime and chaos. Even the people doing what is right, doing what you think you should be doing, working in a prestigious field or pursuing a professional career are grabbed by the ankle and dragged down, unable to claw their way back up. The intricacies of the world they lived in and the world of today are different, but the hopeless desperation remains exactly the same.
In addition, what remains so striking about Trainspotting is its commitment to the grotesque. Today, the most popular media focusing on the reality of addiction is Euphoria, characterised and popularised more by its glamorous aesthetic and bold creative choices than its commitment to displaying the brutal reality of addiction. When talking about Euphoria, the general public thinks of the fashion, the sparkling makeup, the music and the thrill of chaos. Thirty years later, start a conversation about Trainspotting and what comes up is the death of a baby, the merciless portrayal of suffering, the tragic loss of lives and endless despair. Ask somebody if they have seen Trainspotting, and watch their expression change as they relive the terror and disgust of watching the gut-wrenching film, as they are again taken over by the absolute hopelessness that the film instills in them.
This is why Trainspotting is so important; it is not just relevant and technically excellent in every capacity from script to performance to editing, but it brings to life more than just a story about addiction. It is a story about a loss of direction in life, an inability for the world to make sense, the endless yet fruitless pursuit of freedom in a world where we are expected to choose dress pants, choose office holiday parties and two weeks vacation a year, choose water cooler chats and work from home, choose fluorescent lights and cafeteria lunches.
Choose life, choose Trainspotting in select theatres starting June 5th
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