Trainspotting

Dir. Danny Boyle. 1996, 93 mins. U.K. DCP. With Ewan McGregor, Kevin McKidd, Ewan Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Macdonald. Boyle’s adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel about heroin addicts in Edinburgh is a film of provocative incongruities—an upbeat, exhilarating entertainment about mind-bogglingly grim subject matter that managed not just to become a hit movie stateside but spawn an iconic cultural moment. McGregor was forever a star after his explosive turn as Mark Renton, an unemployed twentysomething whose potential is constantly thwarted by the quality of the friends he keeps, especially psychopath Begbie (a frighteningly unhinged Carlyle) and idiotic man-child Spud (Bremner). Charting Renton’s recurring attempts to get clean and sober, Trainspotting courses on the spasmodic rhythms of characters always looking for the next transcendent fix, a city in freefall, and, of course, a killer soundtrack featuring Iggy Pop, Blur, Lou Reed, Pulp, Brian Eno, and other legendary Britpop rockers. 

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership. 

Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission.