MARK RENTON runs along an Edinburgh street pursued by two store detectives. Stolen consumer goods fall from inside his jacket. In voice-over RENTON catalogues the so-called attractions, material and otherwise, of an ordinary life:

"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers... choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mindnumbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose Life ...

But why would I want to do a thing like that?"

What MARK RENTON has chosen instead is a "sincere and truthful junk habit" and a bunch of friends who inhabit a world all of their own:

BEGBIE, a violent alcoholic psycho who even frightens his so-called mates and doesn't touch drugs. SPUD, a hopeless but amiable heroin addict.

SICK BOY, a suave lady's man with an encyclopeadic knowledge of Sean Connery, he seems able to control his habit and is only ever on the look-out for number one. And why did he get his nick-name? Because SICK BOY is "one sick individual".

And then there's TOMMY, who tries. He doesn't take drugs and has an enthusiasm for hill-walking and an obsession with Iggy Pop.

Somewhere on the periphery are LIZZY, who goes out with TOMMY, GAIL who goes out with SPUD, and ALLISON who doesn't go out with anyone but has just had somebody's baby.

RENTON decides, not for the first time, to kick his habit. After one last unconventional hit, involving opium suppositories and Scotland's most unsavoury toilet, he settles into a rented room to sit through the agonies of withdrawal.

SICK BOY, has also decided to lay-off drugs - not because he wants to, you understand, but just so he can annoy RENTON. Together they go to the park to shoot dogs with an air rifle.

Now off heroin, RENTON finds that the DHSS are sending him and SPUD for a job interview. It's a delicate situation: if they don't appear to be making an effort at the interview their dole money will be cut off and if they do try they might get the job - God forbid. It's a tightrope.

After nobly flunking their interviews RENTON and SPUD meet their mates for a drink. BEGBIE tells them about the latest guy he's hospitalised and then throws a glass into the crowded pub and starts a fight.

RENTON and his friends go out to a disco. Heroin had robbed RENTON of his sex-drive but now it returns with a vengeance. His post-junk libido, fuelled by alcohol and amphetamine, taunts him remorselessly... But then he sees DIANE. She's sassy and attractive and decides to take pity on this poor sex-starved creature and takes him home for the night.

RENTON wakes in the morning to find that the man and woman in the kitchen are not DIANE's flatmates but her parents and that DIANE is standing in the doorway in a school uniform...

Meanwhile GAIL has agreed to sleep with SPUD after holding him off for more than a month, but he passes out on the bed before anything has happened. And TOMMY doesn't get sex with LIZZY because he's lost their home made pom-video - which RENTON has in fact swiped.

TOMMY persuades his mates to go for a walk in the country.

That's the last straw for RENTON. He makes a "healthy, informed, conscious decision" to get back on drugs as soon as possible.

LIZZY leaves TOMMY because of the video incident. Depressed, TOMMY begs RENTON to give him a hit of heroin. TOMMY develops a habit.

We get a lesson in Junkie economics: RENTON, SPUD and SICK BOY indulge in a spate of shop-lifting, burglary and cheque fraud. They learn to adore and respect the National Health Service: it's the source of most of their gear.

But the good times couldn't last forever.

While they are all shooting up ALLISON discovers that her baby has died. Nobody can sav anything. Finally RENTON manages: "I'm cooking up".

Things go from bad to worse. RENTON and SPUD get caught shop-lifting and SPUD is sent down. RENTON is released on the understanding he's joined a methadone programme.

RENTON just needs one more hit ... he O.Ds and a taxi dumps him outside the hospital.

RENTON's parents take him home and lock him in his bedroom. He hallucinates ALLISON's dead baby crawling across the ceiling.

RENTON goes for an AIDS test. In his fevered imagination it takes on the form of a game show.

Miraculously, although he has been sharing needles in the midst of a plague, and his friends have been dropping like flies, RENTON is not HIV positive.

RENTON's parents tell him he should be happy - and yes he should. But as RENTON sits among his parent's middle aged friends at the social club playing bingo, he just can't feel that way.

RENTON visits TOMMY. The flat that LIZZY once kept pristine is now a mire. He's sold practically all the contents to feed his habit. He doesn't go outside anymore or even support his football team. He asks RENTON for a loan.

RENTON decides that he needs to get away and heads for London where he gets a job selling shoddy flat conversions for a dodgy estate agent. He's "choosing life" - the life that's available to him in all it's cheap and nasty consumerism and worthlessness.

But RENTON can't escape his mates. BEGBIE tums up on the run from the police after committing an anned robbery. He stays at RENTON's bedsit. Then SICK BOY arrives intent on establishing a few business contacts.

RENTON allows BEGBIE and SICK BOY to sleep at one of his unsold flats but when the boss comes round with some clients and BEGBIE assaults them, the three friends are soon on their way back up North.

But they've got another reason to be there: TOMMY's funeral . After the funeral SICK BOY tells them that he's come into the opportunity to buy a large quantity of drugs at a very good price from some Russian sailors and that if RENTON chips in some money they can take it to London and make a sizeable profit. After some persuading RENTON agrees.

BEGBIE, RENTON, SICK BOY and SPUD take the night bus to London and do their deal. Celebrating in the pub afterwards BEGBIE gets into a fight with a man who spills his drink.

Back at their hotel everyone's asleep. RENTON gets up and eases the bag full of money from under BEGBIE's arm. SPUD opens his eyes and sees what is happening but says nothing. RENTON and he look at each other.

RENTON gets out on the streets and takes his passport from an envelope. Policemen arrive at the hotel to arrest a raging BEGBIE. RENTON has finally escaped his friends and clutching the bag is lost in the crowd of anonymous faces. "So why did I do it? I could offer a million answers, all false. The truth is that I'm a bad person, but that's going to change, I'm going to change. This is the last of this sort of thing. I'm cleaning up and I'm moving on, going straight and choosing life. I'm looking forward to it already. I'm going to be just like you: the job, the family, the fucking big television, the washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electrical tin opener, good health, low cholesterol, dental insurance, mortgage, starter home, leisurewear, luggage, three piece suite, DIY, game shows, junk food, children, walks in the park, nineto-five, good at golf, washing the car, choice of sweaters, family Christmas, indexed pension, tax exemption, clearing the gutters, getting by, looking ahead, the day you die."

The Main Cast

Renton.................................. EWAN McGREGOR
Spud.................................... EWEN BREMNER
Sick Boy................................ JONNY LEE MILLER
Tommy................................... KEVIN McKIDD
Begbie.................................. ROBERT CARLYLE
Diane................................... KELLY MACDONALD

Directed by............................. DANNY BOYLE