"RENTON:" "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 good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance." "Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments." "Choose a starter home." "Choose your friends." "Choose leisurewear and matching luggage." "Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics." "Choose D.I.Y. and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning." "Choose sitting, watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth." "Tommy, go!" "Choose rotting away at the end of it, pissing your last in a miserable home." "An embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats that you've spawned to replace yourself." "Choose your future." "Choose life." "# Here comes Johnny Yen again #" "# With the liquor and drugs #" "But why would I want to do a thing like that?" "# He's gonna do another striptease #" "I chose not to choose life." "I chose something else." "And the reasons?" "There are no reasons." "Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?" "# Yeah, something called love #" "# Well, that's like hypnotizing chickens #" "[Baby cooing]" ""Goldfinger's" better than "Dr. No."" "Both of them are a lot better than "Diamonds Are Forever."" "A judgment reflected in its relatively poor showing at the box office." "In which field, of course," ""Thunderball" was a notable success." "People think it's all about misery and desperation and death and all that shite, which is not to be ignored." "Fuck off!" "Doss cunt!" "But what they forget is the pleasure of it." "Wild hands like me!" "You prick!" "Otherwise we wouldn't do it." " Do you want me to do it?" " Yeah." "Beaut as the driven snow, that shit, Danny." "After all, we're not fucking stupid." "Well, at least, we're not that fucking stupid." "Take the best orgasm you ever had, multiply it by 1, 000, and you're still nowhere near it." "That beats any meat injection." "That beats any fucking cock in the world." "When you're on junk, you have only one worry." "Scoring." "When you're off it, you worry about all sorts of other shite." "Got no money." "Can't get drunk." "Got money." "Drinking too much." "Can't get a girl." "No chance of a ride." "Got a girl." "Too much hassle." "You have to worry about bills, about food, about some football team that never wins, about human relationships and all of the things that don't matter when you've got a sincere and truthful junk habit." "I'd say, in those days, he was a muscular actor." "With all the presence of someone like Cooper or Lancaster, but combined with a sly wit to make him a formidable romantic lead." "Closer in that respect to Cary Grant." "Aah." "# Hey, man, where'd ya get that lotion?" "#" "# Your skin starts itching once you buy the gimmick #" "# About something called love #" "# Love, love, love #" "# Well, that's like hypnotizing chickens #" "The only drawback, or at least the principal drawback, is that you have to endure cunts telling you..." ""No way would I poison my body with that shite."" "All the fucking chemicals." "No fucking way." "It's a waste of your life, Mark, poisoning your body with that shite." "Every chance you've had, son, you've blown it." "Stuffing your veins with that filth." "From time to time, even I have uttered the magic words." "Never again, Swanney." "I'm off the scag." "Are you serious?" "Yeah." "No more." "I'm finished with that shite." "It's up to you." "I'm going to get it sorted out, get off it for good." "I sure have heard that one before." "The Sick Boy method." "Well, it really worked for him, eh?" "He's always been lacking in moral fiber." "He knows a lot about Sean Connery." "That's hardly a substitute." "You need one more hit." "No, I don't think so." "For the long night that lies ahead." "We called him Mother Superior on account of the length of his habit." "Of course I'd have another shot." "After all, I had work to do." "Relinquishing junk, stage one." "Preparation." "For this you will need one room, which you will not leave." "Soothing music." "Tomato soup, 10 tins of." "Mushroom soup, 8 tins of for consumption cold." "Ice cream, vanilla, one large tub of." "Magnesia, milk of, one bottle." "Paracetamol, mouthwash, vitamins, mineral water, Lucozade, pornography." "One mattress." "One bucket for urine, one for feces, and one for vomitus." "One television." "One bottle of Valium, which I procured from my mother, who is, in her own domestic and socially acceptable way, also a drug addict." "And now I'm ready." "All I need is one final hit to soothe the pain while the Valium takes effect." "Mikey." "Hi." "Yeah, it's Mark Renton." "Look, could you help me out?" "This was typical of Mikey Forrester." "What the fuck are these?" "Under the normal run of things" "I would have had nothing to do with the cunt, but this was not the normal run of things." "Opium suppositories." "Ideal for your purposes." "Slow release." "Bring you down gradually." "Custom-fucking-designed for your needs." "I want a fucking hit!" "That's all I've got, man." "Take it or leave it." "Are you feeling better now?" "For all the good they've done me," "I might as well have stuck them up my arse." "Heroin makes you constipated." "The heroin from my last hit is fading away." "The suppositories have yet to melt." "Ohh!" "I'm no longer constipated." "I fantasize about massive pristine convenience." "Brilliant gold taps, virginal-white marble, a seat carved from ebony, a cistern full of Chanel No. 5, and a flunky handing me pieces of raw silk toilet roll." "But under the circumstances, I'll settle for anywhere." "Ohh." "[Gags]" "Fuck." "Ohh!" "Oh!" "[Defecating]" "Ahh." "[Laughs]" "[Breathing heavily]" "[Defecating]" "[Gags]" "[Coughs, spits]" "Yes, a fucking Godsend!" "And now." "Now I'm ready." "The downside of coming off junk was I knew I would mix with my friends in a state of full consciousness." "It was awful." "They reminded me of myself." "I could hardly bear to look at them." "Take Sick Boy, for instance." "He came off junk at the same time." "Not because he wanted to." "Just to annoy me." "Just to show me how easily he could do it, thereby downgrading my own struggle." "Sneaky fucker, don't you think?" "When I wanted to lie there and feel sorry for myself, he insisted on telling me once again about his unifying theory of life." "It's certainly a phenomenon in all walks of life." "What do you mean?" "Well, at one point, you've got it." "Then you lose it, and it's gone forever." "All walks of life." "Georgie Best, for example, had it, lost it." "Or David Bowie, or Lou Reed." "Lou Reed?" "Some of his solo stuff's not bad." "No, it's not bad, but it's not great either, is it?" "In your heart, you kind of know that although it sounds all right, it's actually just shite." "So who else?" "Charlie Nicholas, David Niven, Malcolm McLaren, Elvis Presley." "Okay, okay, so what is the point you're trying to make?" "All I am trying to do, Mark, is to help you understand that "The Name of the Rose" is merely a blip on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory." "And what about "The Untouchables"?" "I don't rate that at all." "Despite the Academy Award?" "That means fuck all." "It's a sympathy vote." "So we all get old, we can't hack it anymore, and that's it?" "Yeah." "That's your theory?" "Yeah." "Beautifully fucking illustrated." "Give me the gun." "Give me the gun." "[Imitating Sean Connery] Do you see the beast?" "Have you got it in your sights?" "Clear enough, Miss Moneypenny." "This should present no significant problems." "[Gunshot, dog barking, man screaming]" "Aah!" "No!" "Fuck!" "Aah!" "For a vegetarian, Rents, you're a fucking evil shot." "No!" "Get off!" "Without heroin, I attempted to lead a useful and fulfilling life as a good citizen." "[Burps]" " Good luck, Spud." " Cheers, Cowboy." "Remember, if they think you're not trying, you're in trouble." "First hint of that, they'll be on to the DHSS." ""This cunt is not trying."" "And your giro is fucking finished, right?" "But then again, try too hard..." "You might get the fucking job." "Exactly." "Nightmare." "It's a tightrope, Spud." "It's a fucking tightrope." "See, I just get pure shy with the interviewer cats." "I get all nervous." "I can't answer the questions." "I'm a footballer, and I get nerves on the big occasion, man." "Try some of this, Spud." "Yeah, a little dab of speed is just the ticket, man." "No, I went to Craigy." "Craig Newton." "I just put down Royal Edinburgh College to help get the job." "There's too much discrimination in this town." "They're both schools." "We're all in this together." "I want to put across the general idea rather than the details." "People get hung up on details." "Which school did I go to?" "How many grades did I get?" "It could be six." "Could be none." "It's not important." "What is important is that I am, yes?" "Mr. Murphy, do you mean that you lied on your application?" "No!" "Yes, only to get my foot in the door." "Showing initiative and that." "You were referred by the Department of Employment." "There was no need for you to get your "foot in the door,"" "as you put it." "Cool." "Whatever you say, man." "Sorry." "You're the man, the dude in the chair." "I am merely here." "But obviously I'm here." "Mr. Murphy, what exactly attracts you to the leisure industry?" "In a word, pleasure." "Like, my pleasure in other people's leisure." "Do you see yourself as having any weaknesses?" "Oh, yes, 'cause I'm a bit of a perfectionist, actually." "Yes, I am." "See, for me, it's got to be the best, or it's nothing at all." "Like, if things get a bit dodgy, I cannot be bothered." "But I've got good vibes about this interview thing today." "Seems to me like it's going pretty well." "Thank you, Mr. Murphy." "We'll let you know." "The pleasure was mine." "Spud had done well." "I was proud of him." "He fucked up good and proper." "You had to hand it to Spud." "BEGBIE:" "Picture the scene." "The other fucking week, doing the fucking volley." "Me and Tommy playing pool." "I'm playing like Paul fucking Newman by the way." "Giving the boy here the tanning of a lifetime." "So it comes to the last shot." "The deciding ball of the whole tournament." "I'm on the black, and he's in the corner, looking all fucking biscuit-arsed, when this hard cunt comes in." "Obviously fucking fancied himself, like." "Starts staring at me." "Looking at me, right fucking at me, as if to say, "Come ahead, square, go."" "You know me." "I'm not a type of cunt that goes looking for bother." "At the end of the day, I'm the cunt with the pool cue, and he can get the fire end in his puss anytime he wanted." "So I squares up, casual like." "What does the hard cunt do?" "Or the so-called hard cunt?" "Shites it." "Puts down his drink, turns, and gets the fuck out of there." "And after that, well, the game was mine." "And that was it." "That was Begbie's story." "At least that was Begbie's version of the story." "But a couple of days later I got the truth from Tommy." "You always got the truth from Tommy." "It was one of his major weaknesses." "He never told lies, he never took drugs, and he never cheated on anyone." "TOMMY:" "It was Wednesday morning." "We were in the volley playing pool." "That much is true." "But Begbie is playing absolutely fucking gash." "He's got a hangover so bad he can hardly hold the cue, never mind pot a ball." "I'm doing my best to lose, you know." "Trying to humor him, like, but it's not doing any good." "Every time I touch a ball, I seem to pot something." "Every time Begbie goes near the table, he fucks it up." "Oh, fuck's sake." "So he's got the hump, right?" "But finally I manage to set it up so all he has to do is to pot the black to win one game to salvage a little bit of pride and maybe not kick my head in, right?" "So he's on the black, pressure shot." "And it all goes wrong, big-time." "Fuck!" "Aah!" "TOMMY:" "He picks on this specky wee gadgee at the bar and accuses him of putting him off by looking at him." "Can you believe it?" "The cunt hasn't glanced in our direction." "Fuck off!" "He was going to chib him, I tell you." "Then I thought he was going to do me." "The beggar's fucking psycho, man." "But he's a mate, you know, so what can you do?" "Can I borrow this?" "What indeed could one do?" "Just stand back and watch and try not to get involved." "[Glass shatters, woman screams]" "Begbie didn't do drugs, either." "He just did people." "That's what he got off on." "His own sensory addiction." "Nobody move!" "That lassie got glassed, and no cunt leaves here till we find out what cunt did it." "Who the fuck are you?" "Yes!" "Ohh!" "[Screaming]" "[Heavy breathing]" "Oh, Tom!" "Oh, my God!" "Oh, Lizzy!" "Oh, Lizzy!" "Oh, Tom, come in me!" "And as I sat watching the intimate and highly personal video, stolen only hours earlier from one of my best friends," "I realized that something important was missing from my life." "# Leave no track #" "# Don't look back #" "# All I desire #" "# Temptation #" "I read it in "Cosmopolitan."" "It's an interesting theory." "Actually, it's a nightmare." "I've been desperate for a shag, but watching him suffer was just too much fun." "You should try it with Tommy." "What, and deny myself the only pleasure I get from him?" "Did I tell you about my birthday?" "What happened?" "He forgot." "Useless motherfucker." "BOTH:" "What are you two talking about?" "BOTH:" "Football!" "What are you talking about?" "BOTH:" "Shopping." "The situation was becoming serious." "Young Renton noticed the haste with which the successful, in the sexual sphere, as in all others, segregated themselves from the failures." "# I can't break away #" "# Keep us from temptation #" "# Keep us from temptation #" "Heroin had robbed Renton of his sex drive, but now it returned with a vengeance." "And as the impotence of those days faded into memory, grim desperation took a hold in his sex-crazed mind." "His post-junk libido, fueled by alcohol and amphetamine, taunted him remorselessly with his own unsatisfied desire." "Dot, dot, dot." "# You think that you're right now #" "# Temptation #" "# You're gonna face it tonight now #" "# Temptation #" "# Oh, give me a breakdown #" "# Temptation #" "# Because it's time for a shakedown #" "# Temptation #" "# Temptation #" "# Temptation #" "And with that, Mark Renton had fallen in love." "Excuse me, I don't mean to harass you, but I was very impressed with the capable manner in which you dealt with that." "I was thinking to myself, "This girl's special."" "Thanks." " What's your name?" " Diane." " Where are you going, Diane?" " I'm going home." " Where's that?" " It's where you live." "Great." "What?" "I'll come back with you, but I'm not promising anything." "Do you find that this approach usually works?" "Or, let me guess, you've never tried it before." "In fact, you don't normally approach girls, am I right?" "The truth is that you're a quiet, sensitive type, but if I'm prepared to take a chance," "I might just get to know the inner you." "Witty, adventurous, passionate, loving, loyal." "Taxi!" "A little bit crazy, a little bit bad." "But, hey, don't us girls just love that?" "Well, what's wrong, boy?" "Cat got your tongue?" "I left something." "Are you getting in or not, pal?" "Do you understand?" "I expect you to be a considerate and thoughtful lover." "Generous but firm." "What?" "Failure on your part to live up to these reasonable expectations will result in swift resumption of a non-sex situation." "Right?" "Diane." "Shh!" "What?" "Shut up!" "Wake up, Spud." "Wake up." "Sex." "[Snoring]" "Casual sex." "Tommy, let's put the tape on." "Now?" "I want to watch ourselves while we're screwing." "So let's see what I'm missing." "Not much." "MAN ON TV:" "Pushed forward again." "And there's the captain, Archie Gemmill, picking it up from the outside." "I think he wants to go himself." "He's gonna go." "He's going all the way." "And he scores!" "Oh, what a magnificent goal!" "Gemmill at his very best!" "What a penetrating goal that was!" "I haven't felt that good since Archie Gemmill scored against Holland in 1978." "You can't sleep here." " What?" " Out." "Come on!" "No argument." "You can sleep on the sofa in the hall or go home." "It's up to you." "And don't make any noise." "Jesus!" "What do you mean, "It's gone"?" " Where has it gone, Tommy?" " It'll be here somewhere!" "I might have returned it by mistake." "Returned it?" "Where?" "The video shop, Tommy?" "The fucking video shop?" "So every punter in Edinburgh is jerking off to our video?" "Oh, God, Tommy, I feel sick." "[Jet approaches]" "[Rattling]" "[Fly buzzing]" "# Oh, you've got green eyes #" "# Oh, you've got blue eyes #" "# Oh, you've got gray eyes #" "# And I've never seen anyone #" "Hi." "Hello." "# No, I've never met anyone #" "# Quite like you before #" "Fuck." "[Screams]" "Eh?" "Come in and sit down." "Like some coffee?" "Aye." "You must be Mark." "Aye, that's me." "You're a friend of Diane's?" "More of a friend of a friend, no?" "Right." "Are you her flatmates, like?" "Flatmates?" "I must remember that one." "DIANE:" "Morning." "Good morning, Spud." "Gail." "Mr. Houston, Mrs. Houston." "Good morning, Spud." "Sit down and have some breakfast." "I'm sorry about last night, by the way." "That's all right." "I slept fine on the sofa." "I had a bit much to drink." "I had a bit of an accident." "Don't worry, son." "These things happen." "It does a man good to cut loose once in a while." "This one could do with being tied up once in a while." "I'll put the sheets in the machine." "No, no, no, I'll wash them." " There's no need." " It's no problem." "It's no problem for me." "I'd rather take care of it myself." "Honestly, it's no problem." "Really, no!" "Spud, they're my sheets!" "I don't see why not." "Because it's illegal." "That's why not." "What?" "Holding hands?" "Not holding hands." "In that case, you can do it." "You were quite happy to do a lot more last night." "You were quite happy to do a lot more last night." "Yeah, and that's what's illegal." "Do you know what they'd do to me inside?" "They cut your balls off and flush them down the toilet." "Calm down." "You're not going to jail." "Well, that's very easy for you to say, Diane." " Can I see you again?" " Certainly not!" "If you don't see me again, I'll tell the police." "I'll see you around then." "Now what?" "We're going for a walk." "What?" "A walk!" "Where?" "There!" "Are you serious?" "Well, what are you waiting for?" "Tommy." "This is not natural, man." "It's the great outdoors!" "It's fresh air." "Look, Tommy, we know you're getting a hard time off Lizzy, but there's really no need to take it out on us." "Doesn't it make you proud to be Scottish?" "It's shite being Scottish!" "We're the lowest of the low." "The scum of the fucking Earth." "The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever shat into civilization." "Some people hate the English." "I don't." "They're just wankers." "We, on the other hand, are colonized by wankers." "We can't even find a decent culture to be colonized by." "We're ruled by effete arseholes." "It's a shite state of affairs to be in, Tommy, and all the fresh air in the world won't make any fucking difference!" "Sorry, man." "I'm sorry." "No, I appreciate it, Tommy." "At or around this time," "Spud, Sick Boy, and I made a healthy, informed," "Democratic decision to get back on heroin as soon as possible." "It took about 12 hours." "It looks easy, this, but it's not." "It looks like a doss, like a soft option." "But living like this, it's a full-time business." "[Alarm blares]" "SICK BOY:" "Ursula Andress." "The quintessential Bond Girl." "That's what everyone says." "The embodiment, right, of his superiority to us." "Beautiful, exotic, highly sexual, yet totally unavailable to anyone apart from him." "Shite." "I mean, let's face it, mate." "She'd shag one punter from Edinburgh, she'd shag the whole fucking lot of us." "[Cheering on TV]" "MAN ON TV:" "Well done." "I knew he was gonna do that." "Lizzy's gone, Mark." "She's gone and fucking dumped me." "It was that videotape and that Iggy Pop business and other sorts of shit." "She told me where to go and no fucking mistake." "I said to her," ""Is there any chance of getting back together?"" "But no way, no fucking way." "Honor Blackman, A.K.A. Pussy Galore, right?" "What a total fucking misnomer." "I mean, I wouldn't touch her with yours." "I want to try it, Mark." "You're always going on about how it's the ultimate hit." "Better than sex." "Come on, man, I'm a fucking adult." "I can find out for myself." "I've got the money." "Personality." "I mean, that's what counts, right?" "Personality." "That's what keeps a relationship going through the years." "Like heroin." "I mean, heroin's got great fucking personality." "# Nightclubbing #" "# We're nightclubbing #" "# We're walking through town #" "# Nightclubbing #" "RENTON:" "Swanney taught us to respect the National Health Service, for it was the source of much of our gear." "We stole drugs, we stole prescriptions, or bought them, sold them, swapped them, forged them, photocopied them, or traded drugs with cancer victims, alcoholics, old-age pensioners, AIDS patients, epileptics," "and bored housewives." "We took morphine, diamorphine, cyclizine, codeine, temazepam, nitrazepam, phenobarbitone, sodium amytal, dextropropo xyphene, methadone, nalbuphine, pethidine, pentazocine, buprenorphine, dextromoramide, chlormethiazole." "The streets are awash with drugs you can have for unhappiness and pain, and we took them all." "Fuck it, we would have injected vitamin C if only they'd made it illegal." "[Inhales sharply]" "[Baby laughing]" "[American accent] Pardon me, may I use your bathroom?" "Thank you." "You're a psycho!" "Hey, Rent Boy, no fucking smack." "RENTON:" "But the good times couldn't last forever." "ALLISON:" "No!" "God, no!" "Oh, my God, no!" "Please, no!" "I think Allison had been screaming all day, but it hadn't really registered before." "She might have been screaming for a week for all I knew." "It had been days since I heard anyone speak, though someone must have said something in all that time." "Surely to fuck, someone must have." " Allison!" "Allison!" " Help me, please!" "Calm down!" "Everything's going to be just fine." "Nothing could have been further from the truth." "In point of fact, nothing was going to be just fine." "On the contrary, everything was going to be bad." "Bad?" "I mean everything was gonna be even worse than it already was." "[Screaming]" "No!" "Fuck." "Jesus Christ!" "No!" "No!" "It wasn't my baby." "She wasn't my baby." "Baby Dawn, she wasn't mine." "Spud's?" "Swanney's?" "Sick Boy's?" "I don't know." "Maybe Allison knew." "Maybe not." "I wished I could think of something to say, something sympathetic, something human." "Say something, Mark." "Fucking say something!" "I'm cooking up." "Cook us up a shot, Rents." "I need a hit." "And so she did." "I could understand that." "To take the pain away." "So I cooked up, and she got a hit." "But only after me." "That went without saying." "Well, at least we knew who the father was now." "It wasn't just the baby that died that day." "Something inside Sick Boy was lost and never returned." "Something inside Sick Boy was lost and never returned." "It seemed he had no theory with which to explain a moment like this." "Nor did I." "Our only response was to keep on going and fuck everything." "Pile misery upon misery, heap it up on a spoon and dissolve it with bile, then squirt it into a stinking, purulent vein, and do it all over again." "Keep on going, getting up, going out, robbing, stealing, fucking people over, propelling ourselves with longing towards the day that it would all go wrong." "Because no matter how much you stash or how much you steal, you never have enough." "No matter how often you go out and rob and fuck people over, you always need to get up and do it all over again." "Sooner or later, this kind of thing was bound to happen." "JUDGE:" "Because shoplifting is theft, which is a crime, and despite what you may believe, there is no such entity as victimless crime." "Heroin addiction may explain your actions, but it does not excuse them." "Mr. Murphy, you are a habitual thief, devoid of regret and remorse." "In sentencing you to six months imprisonment, my only worry is it will not be long before we meet again." "Mr. Renton, I understand that you have entered into a program of rehabilitation in an attempt to wean yourself away from heroin." "The suspension of your sentence is conditional on your continued cooperation with this program." "Should you stand guilty before me again," "I shall not hesitate to impose a custodial sentence." "Thank you, Your Honor." "With God's help, I'll conquer this terrible affliction." "RENTON:" "What can you say?" "Well, Begbie had a phrase for it." "It was obvious that cunt was going to fuck some cunt." "Well, I hope you learnt your lesson, son." "Oh, my son, I thought I was gonna lose you there." "You're nothing but trouble to me, but I still love you!" "You better clean up your act." "Cut that shite out forever." "You listen to Francis." "He's talking sense." "Fucking right I am." "See, inside, you wouldn't last two fucking days." "There's better things than the needle, Rents." "Choose life." "I remember when you were a wee baby." "Oh, mama's little baby loves." "ALL:" "# Shortening, shortening #" "# Mama's little baby loves shortening bread #" "[Laughter]" "[Laughter stops]"