Trainspotting (1996)
Choose life.
Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends --Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind as Begbie and Sick Boy come knocking.
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| Type | Movie |
|---|---|
| Released | 23 February 1996 |
| Genre | Drama, Crime |
| Director | Danny Boyle |
| Starring | Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner and Jonny Lee Miller |
| Runtime | 94 min |
| Rated | R |
| Scores | Rotten Tomatoes (average) 8.4/10 · Rotten Tomatoes 90% · Metacritic 83/100 · TMDB users 8.0/10 |
Where to watch Trainspotting
We could not find Trainspotting on any of the subscription services we track in the US right now. That changes often; open it in Binge Boss and we will show you where it lands.
Rent or buy
You can rent Trainspotting on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, Fandango at Home and Plex. It is also for sale on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch Trainspotting in 6 other countries
| Country | Streaming on (price a month) |
|---|---|
| Australia | ARD/ZDF |
| Belgium | Max €10.99 |
| France | Max €10.99 |
| Japan | Netflix ¥1590 JPY, U-NEXT ¥2189 JPY |
| Monaco | Max |
| Spain | Filmin |
Subscription, free and ad-supported services we track; prices where Binge Boss has a price list for the country. "About" marks a price the service bills in another currency, converted at the day's rate. All countries as data.
What kind of watch this is
Danny Boyle’s 1996 film moves at a sprint, mixing grit with a dry, observational wit that never quite lets you settle. It is 94 minutes of bad decisions. The tone is less about suffering and more about the absurdity of it all. It feels less like a drama and more like a fever dream you cannot wake up from. Press play, and try to keep up.
What the critics said
Critics largely agreed on the impact, even if they argued about the substance. Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating based on 174 reviews, with an average score of 8.5/10. Metacritic’s weighted average stood at 83 out of 100, indicating universal acclaim. Derek Malcolm noted the film was "acted out with a freedom of expression that's often astonishing." Dissent came from Gene Siskel, who felt the joys of heroin overshadowed the horrors. The praise leaned heavily on style. Peter Travers called it "90 minutes of raw power." Kenneth Turan singled out the lead’s magnetism. It is a film that treats addiction as a music video, which is either brilliant or deeply irresponsible.
How it did with audiences
The box office ledger is empty, so the only number left to argue with is the user score. On TMDB, viewers rate it 8 out of 10. That is a solid mark for a film that spends its runtime making you feel like a participant in your own discomfort. It earned that rating by refusing to let you settle.
Awards
Trainspotting collected 6 wins from 8 nominations. John Hodge took the BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1996. Danny Boyle picked up the Bodil Award for Best Non-American Film the following year. Ewan McGregor was named British Actor of the Year by the London Film Critics Circle in 1997. It also won the Golden Space Needle and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1996. The National Board of Review placed it in their Top Ten Films. A tidy haul for a film about heroin.
What came next for the cast
Ewan McGregor traded Glasgow for the stars, landing in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and later voicing Beast in Beauty and the Beast. Jonny Lee Miller moved from Hackers to a stretch of genre work, including Dark Shadows and Guy Ritchie's The Covenant. Ewen Bremner jumped from Naked and Judge Dredd to Snatch, Snowpiercer, and Wonder Woman. The credits simply list what followed. They do not explain how.
Where it left its mark
Trainspotting punched above its weight in British cinema history. The BFI ranked it tenth in 1999, a spot that feels oddly modest given the noise it made. Total Film called it the fourth greatest British film in 2004, while Channel 4 crowned it the greatest. The Observer polled industry figures who agreed it was the best British film of the last 25 years. It became a touchstone for the Cool Britannia era, even appearing in the Britpop documentary Live Forever. The title itself comes from a station scene where an old drunk asks two users if they are “trainspottin’.” A 2019 Slowthai video and a 2025 Rome Streetz album both nod to that legacy.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched Trainspotting.
Read more: A Clockwork Orange · Requiem for a Dream
Sources
- Trainspotting on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q109135 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “Trainspotting (film)” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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