Who Needs Reasons When You've Got Heroin

Trainspotting chronicles Mark Renton, played by Ewan McGregor, and his struggle with friends and heroin. He surrounds himself with three other “characters,” including Spud, the scapegoat character, Begbie, who’s drug of choice is people, ruining them, that is, and Sickboy, a mischievous kleptomaniac junkie. Renton deals with getting through his addiction, leaving his friends and choosing life, as is referenced in the opening scene, and opens up the end to the audience to decide what he chooses.
This clip is the opening sequence in which Renton explains to the viewer that he can choose life, he can choose a career, he can choose a “big fucking television,” but why would he do all that? After all, he has heroin. The film opens with Renton running from the police after stealing from a store, in order to get cash to buy more heroin. It introduces us to Renton’s life and friends and demonstrates the society with which Renton surrounds himself.