Original Release: January 22, 2017 (Scotland)
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Written by: John Hodge, Irvine Welsh
Produced by: Bernard Bellew, Danny Boyle, Christian Colson, Andrew Macdonald
Running Time: 117 minutes
Box Office: $33,351,909 (Worldwide)
First there was an opportunity... then there was a betrayal. Twenty years have gone by. Much has changed but just as much remains the same. Mark Renton returns to the only place he can ever call home.
They are waiting for him: Spud, Sick Boy, and Begbie. Other old friends are waiting too: sorrow, loss, joy, vengeance, hatred, friendship, love, longing, fear, regret, diamorphine, self-destruction and mortal danger, they are all lined up to welcome him, ready to join the dance.
Ewan McGregor (Renton), Ewen Bremner (Spud), Shirley Henderson (Gail), Jonny Lee Miller (Simon), Anjela Nedyalkova (Veronika), Kelly Macdonald (Diane), James Cosmo (Renton's Father), Steven Robertson (Stoddart), Irvine Welsh (Mikey Forrester)
Filming Locations: (view all)
- Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
- Glasgow, Scotland, UK
- Bulgaria
- Danny Boyle has credited David Bowie with helping to be able to use various hit songs in the original movie inexpensively because he had ties with Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, and helped Boyle out because he was a fan of Shallow Grave (1994). For his own little personal tribute to him following his death, Boyle decided to shoot a moment where Renton goes through his record collection and finds a couple of Bowie's albums. (In the novels, Renton is a fan of Bowie).
- Robert Carlyle kept away from his family in Glasgow while filming because he became so much like Begbie.
- Although Irvine Welsh wrote a follow-up to his novel Trainspotting in 2002 called 'Porno', this movie follow-up is actually only very loosely based on 'Porno.' It is mostly an original story which includes some unused parts of the Trainspotting novel, and some elements from Porno. That being said, during pre-production, this film was titled 'Porno.'
- The four main actors were not all available at the same time at the very beginning of principal photography, due to scheduling conflicts with other projects. Danny Boyle stated in interviews that the American TV careers of Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle in particular made it a necessity to have a reduced filming schedule that could accommodate all four of the male leads.
- Irvine Welsh, who created the film's characters and wrote about them in the novels Trainspotting, Porno, and Skagboys, makes a cameo appearance in T2: Trainspotting as the character Mikey Forrester. Welsh also made a brief appearance in Trainspotting playing this same character.
Begbie: Give me the fucking tablets or I'll come through there and pound your fucking head in!
Begbie: World changes, eh, June? Even if we don't.
Begbie: Who's the fuckin smart cunt now!
Begbie: There's something I have to do tonight, and then I'm going away. One way or another, it'll be a long time before you see me again. So I just thought I'd come by. I just thought I'd come by and say good luck, son. That's all.
Frank Juror: Thanks, Dad.
Begbie: See, it's difficult for me, 'cause... We never had any of that when I was a boy. Not, like, hotel...
Frank Juror: Management.
Begbie: Aye, hotel fucking management, all that shit. I never has any of that. Still... World changes, eh, June? Even if we don't. So... Look after yourself, son.
Begbie: The old wino was my father. This fool is yours. You'll be a better man than either of us.
"We start shooting, I understand, in the middle of May and I think it's going to be pretty much 50-50 between Edinburgh and Glasgow. I'm basing this on nothing other than the fact that the production office is on Bathgate. There's a clue there. What I will say is that all the characters are exactly where you would want them to be. The strength of this new script is the fact that the narrative is a bit stronger than it was in the original. In the first one, when you think about it, it's hard to remember what they did other than get together, the drug deal at the end, and then it's over. This has maybe got a wee bit more to it in terms of what they've been up to through these years. You learn a lot about Renton, Sick Boy and indeed Begbie and where their heads are. I think it's an absolutely fantastic script. John Hodge has done a wonderful job, as he did with the original. Fingers crossed people will take it on board and they will enjoy it."
- Robert Carlyle"Jump through hoops of fire backwards and would do Porno tomorrow for nothing. Begbie is probably the only character I would ever want to revisit because I do believe that there’s an awful lot more mileage there in Begbie. I think there is lots more entertainment to be had from that group of people so I would be up for it, and I know Danny seems to be edging more towards it. After his success at the Oscars, he should be able to pretty much do as he wants.”
- Robert Carlyle"There’s a level of anger that you need to hold on to, so you don’t have to find it every day. It does take its toll on your private life. You find yourself being short with people. You get a wee bit louder and a wee bit more snappy. You think: Where the f**k’s this coming from? Then it hits you: of course – Begbie’s sitting there in the back of your head. My family were in Glasgow, but I stayed in Edinburgh, because he’s not the kind of character you want to take home with you every night."
- Robert Carlyle"Without giving anything away, there's a moment in the script where Renton goes to his room back in Edinburgh, which hasn't changed from back in the day. He goes to his record collection and has a flick through, and I imagine you will see some of the titles. When I read the screenplay last year I was very moved by that. It was quite emotional because this music is as much part of the soundtrack of my life as the film's. It's in there but I genuinely don't know what Danny's (Danny Boyle) plans are with the music. There will be a nod to it, I would imagine."
- Robert Carlyle"A lot of the artists like Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and some of the house stuff was in the book, but I couldn't really see the Britpop stuff working. I was completely wrong about that. The genius of the original soundtrack was it gave it a sense of place, a sense of time, and helped make it into such an iconic film. It was so low budget that I was about getting artists that we knew involved, and basically give us something for nothing to licence the tracks."
- Irvine Welsh
