History Literature / Trainspotting

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: It has both the foreign slang and the incomprehensibility.

** In fact, almost every chapter narrated by a female character features an aversion of this. [[SarcasmMode In no way does one get a sense that Welsh has some difficulty writing female characters.]]

* WordSaladTitle: No one "trainspots" or even says the word in the film. In the book there is a brief scene where an old drunk later implied to be Begbie's father asks Renton and Begbie if they are trainspotting. The term is a slang reference to a junkie's search for a vein to inject drugs in. Fans often speculate as to the various levels of significance the title has to the story's themes.

* DawsonCasting: [[EnforcedTrope Necessary]] in the case of jailbait schoolgirl Diane. KellyMcDonald was 19 at the time of filming.

* ClusterFBomb

''Trainspotting'' is a dark and bizarrely written novel by Creator/IrvineWelsh, published in 1993, and as many a RailEnthusiast has probably found out the hard way, has absolutely zip to do with actually looking for trains.

* VillainProtagonist: Mark Renton. He is after all, a heroin addict who shoplifts, sells drugs, takes sexual advantage of his late brother's widow, and [[spoiler:steals thousands of pounds from his friends]].

* AntiHero: Mark Renton, Despite being a heroin addict who shoplifts, sells drugs, takes sexual advantage of his late brother's widow, and [[spoiler: steals thousands of pounds from his friends]].

* ByronicHero: Both Renton and Sick Boy qualify, though Sick Boy is more towards the villainy end of the [[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes spectrum]].

(If you were really looking for people who like spotting trains, try RailEnthusiast.)

''Trainspotting'' is a dark and bizarrely written novel by Creator/IrvineWelsh, published in 1993. It follows a group of young Scottish men who are close friends, and their lives of drinking, sex, family problems, HIV, death, and most of all, heroin addiction. The protagonists are Mark Renton, an on-and-off heroin junkie, and his friends Tommy, Danny "Spud" Murphy, Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson, and Francis Begbie; childhood pals, they are beginning to drift apart. It's all very darkly humorous ''and then a baby dies''. Noted for its cynical and occasionally shocking tone, the novel has been called "the voice of punk, grown up, grown wise and grown eloquent".

* FakeNationality: JonnyLeeMiller, who is English, is the only cast member not from Scotland.

* DroppedABridgetOnHim: In the movie, but not the novel. One of Begbie's club hookups turns out to be packing a salami surprise. His reaction is [[OhCrap predictable]], though much less violent than might have been anticipated. In the book, this happened to ''Renton'', not Begbie. However, as opposed to panicking, Mark admits to probably just being bisexual and ends up getting to third base with him. Eventually, the violently homophobic Begbie caught Renton fondling the transvestite and beat him until he couldn't walk for a couple days.

* OhCrap: Begbie's reaction in the movie when he discovers that the girl he just picked up [[DroppedABridgetOnHim isn't quite what she seems]]. As it comes [[MoodWhiplash shortly after a lot of extremely dark stuff]] it's [[CrowningMomentOfFunny quite a welcome change of mood]]

* SchoolUniformsAreTheNewBlack: After the first scene with Dianne in the club/having sex with Renton, she is never seen again not wearing her school uniform.

* GoodTimesMontage: In the film, there's a cool montage when Spud, Renton, and Sick Boy start using heroin again. Predictably, though, [[ItGotWorse the good times don't last]].

* FakeNationality: Jonny Lee Miller ,who is English, is the only cast member not from Scotland.

* CharacterDevelopment: the first time around, both book- and movie-wise, Dianne is portrayed as a sex-crazed, club-hopping teenager; by the time ''Porno'' comes up she's toned her recreational drug use down and she matured into a pretty well-adjusted university student, working on her thesis and being more than capable to hold her own in a conversation. She still loves to party, though.

''Trainspotting'' is a dark and bizarrely written novel by IrvineWelsh, published in 1993. It follows a group of young Scottish men who are close friends, and their lives of drinking, sex, family problems, HIV, death, and most of all, heroin addiction. The protagonists are Mark Renton, an on-and-off heroin junkie, and his friends Tommy, Danny "Spud" Murphy, Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson, and Francis Begbie; childhood pals, they are beginning to drift apart. It's all very darkly humorous ''and then a baby dies''. Noted for its cynical and occasionally shocking tone, the novel has been called "the voice of punk, grown up, grown wise and grown eloquent".

* CreatorCameo: IrvineWelsh as Mikey Forrester, the inept drug dealer who sells Renton some anal opium plugs at the start of the film.

* TheVerse: A rough example. All of IrvineWelsh's books take place in the same universe, so the ''Trainspotting'' characters sometimes have fleeting cameo appearances in Welsh's other works. The extremely disturbing book ''Marabou Stork Nightmares'' (which is NauseaFuel on paper) was his second book, and the rapist Lexo from that book makes an appearance in this one. Scary as he is, he is terrified of his "friend" Frank Begbie.

->''Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?''

->''Still, failure, success, what is it? Whae gies a fuck. We aw live, then we die, in quite a short space ay time n aw. That's it; end ay fuckin story. ''

It was adapted into a film in 1996 by DannyBoyle, and was the second of three films from the mid [[TheNineties nineties]] directed by Boyle and starring EwanMcGregor, along with ''ShallowGrave'' and ''A Life Less Ordinary''. It also features JonnyLeeMiller as Sick Boy, Ewen Bremner as Spud, a scarily emaciated Kevin [=McKidd=] as Tommy, RobertCarlyle as Franco Begbie and a youthful KellyMacdonald as Diane. Allegedly due to a head cold, Kevin [=McKidd=] missed being on the iconic poster.

''Trainspotting'' is a dark and bizarrely written novel by Irvine Welsh, published in 1993. It follows a group of young Scottish men who are close friends, and their lives of drinking, sex, family problems, HIV, death, and most of all, heroin addiction. The protagonists are Mark Renton, an on-and-off heroin junkie, and his friends Tommy, Danny "Spud" Murphy, Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson, and Francis Begbie; childhood pals, they are beginning to drift apart. It's all very darkly humorous ''and then a baby dies''. Noted for its cynical and occasionally shocking tone, the novel has been called "the voice of punk, grown up, grown wise and grown eloquent".

* CreatorCameo: Irvine Welsh as Mikey Forrester, the inept drug dealer who sells Renton some anal opium plugs at the start of the film.

* TheVerse: A rough example. All of Irvine Welsh's books take place in the same universe, so the ''Trainspotting'' characters sometimes have fleeting cameo appearances in Welsh's other works. The extremely disturbing book ''Marabou Stork Nightmares'' (which is NauseaFuel on paper) was his second book, and the rapist Lexo from that book makes an appearance in this one. Scary as he is, he is terrified of his "friend" Frank Begbie.

The book has a prequel, ''{{Skagboys}}'', which chart the descent of the main characters into drug addiction, violence, crime and defeatism. The sequel, ''{{Porno}}'', catches up with them ten years later and follows mainly Sick Boy and Renton as they work through their issues with each other while producing a pornographic movie.