The iconic opening scene of Trainspotting throws the audience in at the deep end, choosing to start the movie with Renton and Spud being chased through the streets of Edinburgh. The camera is mostly handheld, giving the movie a more personal feeling to the film as it is almost as if we are running alongside Renton and Spud. Throughout the scene it switches quickly between close ups of Renton as he runs, and wide angle shots to show the general public’s reaction to them being chased through the streets by the police. When Renton is hit by the car and laughs at the driver before getting knocked down, it is sort of a comedic moment based on the established atmosphere. It’s the movie’s way of telling us that the ride is starting and it's going to be a fun one. Furthermore, when he is hit by the car it switches to a POV shot from the driver and its very effective as it shows Renton in a slightly different light, from his facial expression it almost shows him to be a bit crazy as he’s just been hit by a car yet he laughs and smiles about it. It’s almost like Renton is breaking the fourth wall and is smiling and laughing at the audience.
Renton’s infamous “choose life” monologue plays non diegetically over the sound of Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life. It is a very energetic and lively song setting up the audience for a fun, upbeat movie despite the dark subject matter we know the movie will contain. With that, we have Renton's arrogant, rebellious "choose life" monologue about rejecting societal norms and values, instead taking the path of a heroin addict just because it’s different and more exciting than conventional life.
We then get a shot of the group of ‘friends’ all together, this is also the first time we really see Renton with anyone else where he seems relatively happy which brings up themes of friendship. From the two shots of the opposing team compared with the group, we can see that, unlike the opposing team, Rentons group are not wearing uniforms, again highlighting that they don’t want to be and are not a part of the society that they live in. We can clearly see that Begbie enjoys hurting people when he knocks down a man from the opposing team and smiles. This is supported throughout the movie where Begbie often gets unnecessarily and extremely violent. We can see that Spud is wearing ridiculously short shorts and a superman shirt, which introduces him as a comical character not to be taken too seriously. It could also represent how he is like the child of the group, and we can start to see some roles forming within the group.
During the football scene, Tommy, who steers clear of the drugs that Renton and Spud are taking, is chased into a corner by three of the opposing players and left trapped and looking rather panicked. As this happens, Renton’s monologue says “choose rotting away at the end of it all,” foreshadowing Tommy later contracting an AIDS related form of Toxoplasmosis and being left to slowly decompose for days on end before a neighbour called the police in complaint of the smell coming from the flat.
