Anecdotes for
Trainspotting (1996)

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• Although set in Edinburgh, most interiors, and some of the exteriors, were shot in Glasgow. A notable exception is the chase down Princes Street.
  
  
• For its American release, the first 20 minutes had to be re-dubbed to make the Scottish accents more intelligible.
  
  
• The writing on the wall of the Volcano Nightclub is the same as that in the Moloko bar in A Clockwork Orange (1971). There are also paintings of Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster from Taxi Driver (1976).
  
  

• The shot of Sick Boy's finger ringing the Renton's doorbell in London is almost identical to a shot in Tirez sur le pianiste (1960).
  
  
• References to The Beatles:
  • The scene where the store detectives chase Renton down the street is reminiscent of the scene in A Hard Day's Night (1964) where The Beatles are pursued by fans.
  • While watching the train, the four friends arrange themselves in the same manner as The Beatles did on the back of the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
  • The scene where the four friends cross the road and enter the hotel is reminiscent of the cover of the album "Abbey Road".
  • The scene where Renton wakes up on the couch in the morning at Diane's home and says hello to someone passing through the hallway while covered with a blanket to his chin, is reminiscent of a scene in Help! (1965) where Ringo is found in a trunk of a car covered up with a blanket, and upon being found, says hello.
  
  
  
• Ewen Bremner (Spud) had previously played Renton in a stage adaptation of the novel.
  
  
• Jonny Lee Miller's character, Sick Boy, is obsessed with James Bond trivia. Miller is the grandson of Bernard Lee, who played "M" in the Bond series until 1979.
  
  
• In one scene in London, while Renton is "visited" by Begbie, he's reading a book about actor Montgomery Clift who had lots of experiences with drugs and medication of all kinds.
  
  
• Cameo: [John Hodge (writer)] store security officer in pursuit of an unruly pair in opening scene.
  
  
• The last scene with Spud getting the money in the locker is almost identical to a scene in Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Even the circumstances behind the scenes are very similar.
  
  
• Cameo: [Irvine Welsh (author)] as Mikey Forrester, Renton's heroin dealer.
  
  
• To play the skinny heroin-addicted Renton, Ewan McGregor was placed on a simple diet consisting of no alcohol or dairy products in order to lose weight. It only took him two months to reach Renton's desired size.
  
  
• Danny Boyle used twins to play the part of baby Dawn, which meant neither of the babies were forced to be in front of the camera for too long. All of the cast used to play with the two babies in between takes so they could break the tension of the often difficult scenes they were about to shoot.
  
  
• Many of the book's stories and characters were dropped in order to create a cohesive movie script of adequate length.
  
  
• The toilet-diving scene is a reference to Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel "Gravity's Rainbow".
  
  
• The football team pictured in the opening credits is the Calton Athletic Club, who are actually drug addiction counselors and were the primary consultants for the film.
  
  
• Christopher Eccleston was offered the role of Begbie.
  
  
• Cameo: [Andrew MacDonald] the prospective buyer of the "Victorian Townhouse" that Renton is trying to sell.
  
  
• Created much controversy when it was released in the USA for its content. Senator Bob Dole charged the film with glorifying drug use, but later admitted he hadn't seen the film. See also: Priest (1994), Natural Born Killers (1994), and Kids (1995)
  
  
• Was ranked number 10 on the British Film Institute's all time best British films.
  
  
• Danny Boyle had his actors prepare by making them watch older movies about rebellious youths like The Hustler (1961), The Exorcist (1973) and A Clockwork Orange (1971). The latter film is directly homaged in the scene set in the Volcano nightclub, which is very similar to that set in the Milk Bar in Kubrick's film. Indeed, the track playing in the Volcano club is by Heaven 17 who took their name from A Clockwork Orange (1971).
  
  
• Before he took up screenwriting, John Hodge was a doctor and had to frequently deal with heroin addicts. Some of his experiences have been worked into the script. One such example is the junkies stealing a television set from an old folk’s home.
  
  
• The scene where Sick-Boy and Renton lie in the park and take potshots with their air-rifle was originally going to be set to the theme from "Mission: Impossible" (1966). Unfortunately Brian De Palma was setting up the film version of the TV show at the time so getting to the rights to the music simply proved to be too expensive - approximately three times the film's budget. Both actors were very hungover for the scene in question.
  
  
• Although it looks thoroughly offputting, the faeces in the Worst Toilet in Scotland scene was actually made from chocolate and smelled quite pleasant.
  
  
• The whole film was shot in just seven and a half weeks.
  
  
• Danny Boyle credits the Spike Jonze-directed music video for "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys as a major influence on the opening sequence of the film.
  
  
• Kevin McKidd (Tommy) missed the photo shoot for the promos because he was on holiday. This resulted in him being the only lead cast member not to be in any of the promotional posters or even the video cover.
  
  
• Irvine Welsh had been approached by film-makers before about adapting "Trainspotting" for the screen but had resisted their offers. He was won over by 'Andrew Macdonald (I)' and John Hodge's enthusiasm for the project but only on the condition that they didn't adopt a Ken Loach semi-documentary approach to the material.
  
  
• For the close-up shots of Ewan McGregor injecting himself with heroin, a prosthetic arm was constructed by the make-up department, complete with pulsing veins, smack tracks and small pockets of blood that would appear when the skin was punctured by a hypodermic needle.
  
  
• First feature film of Kevin McKidd.
  
  

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