'So what have you been doing for twenty years?' Ewan McGregor is still choosing life as he makes a dramatic return to Edinburgh in the first official trailer for Trainspotting 2 

By Jason Chester for MailOnline

Published: 04:51 EDT, 3 November 2016 | Updated: 10:31 EDT, 3 November 2016

With its cynical Choose Life manifesto it became a surprise box office hit and, by extension, the film that arguably defined a generation.

But while twenty years have passed since Mark Renton fled to Amsterdam with a bag full of stolen cash in Danny Boyle's Trainspotting, the first official trailer for its hotly anticipated sequel find him older, but certainly none the wiser as he makes a dramatic return to his native Edinburgh.

Opening with an updated version of his iconic monologue, Renton – played by Ewan McGregor - acknowledges the vast social and technological advances that have been made since his surreptitious departure by urging viewers to ‘Chose life, choose Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and hope that someone, somewhere cares.’

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Choose life: Mark Renton, played by Ewan McGregor, returns to Edinburgh following a twenty year absence in the first official trailer for T2 - the hotly anticipated sequel to 1996 classic Trainspotting 

Renton certainly does, and seemingly free of drug addiction, he is greeted with a healthy degree of sarcasm by Jonny Lee Miller’s Sick Boy as they cautiously reunite in an inner-city pub.

‘Hello Mark,’ his old friend says. ‘So what you been up to? For twenty years.’

But it’s not just Sick Boy who gets a visit from a nostalgic Renton, and his return prompts mixed responses from close pal Spud and former schoolgirl lover Diane, played by Kelly MacDonald, now a respectable businesswoman with a job in the city.

‘So what you been up to? For twenty years': Renton is greeted with a healthy degree of sarcasm by Jonny Lee Miller’s Sick Boy as they cautiously reunite in an inner-city pub

I'm back: A nostalgic Renton is back in his native Scotland twenty years after fleeing with a bag full of stolen cash

'Do you still take heroin?' she asks him with the same detached, expressionless tone that characterized their initial meeting in an Edinburgh nightclub some twenty years previously. 

Elsewhere Renton gets a rather more animated greeting from the notoriously unpredictable Frank Begbie, played by Robert Carlisle, who makes his own return to Edinburgh following a spell in prison.

Time has clearly not been a mellowing influence, and Begbie is at his menacing best as he seeks to exact revenge for Renton’s perceived betrayal. 

Friends reunited: The returning character gets mixed responses from close pal Spud...  

... and former schoolgirl lover Diane, now a respectable businesswoman with a job in the city

The shadow of Boyle's 1996 classic looms large over its sequel, and there are numerous references to the past - including the iconic opening bars of Underworld track Born Slippy.

Elsewhere there are acknowledgements to its famous opening scene as Spud, played by the returning Euan Bremner, observes a young addict fleeing a store security guard.

Meanwhile Renton echoes the past after being hit by a car, which abruptly pulls on the brakes as he places his hands on the bonnet and bursts into a fit of manic laughter. 

Look who's back: Elsewhere Renton gets a rather more animated greeting from the notoriously unpredictable Frank Begbie, who is making his own return to Edinburgh following a spell in prison

Back in business: Sick Boy makes a welcome return, but doesn't look too pleased with his old sidekick

Your card is marked: Time and advancing years have clearly not been a mellowing influence, and Begbie, played by Robert Carlisle, is at his menacing best

Adapted from Scottish author Irvine Welsh's 2002 novel Porno and directed by the returning Boyle, Trainspotting 2 - abbreviated for the screen as T2 - sees the reunited cast attempt to make a name for themselves in the lucrative adult film industry.   

Speaking about the movie earlier this year, Welsh - who also returns as hapless drug dealer Mikey Forrester - told NME: 'I tell you, this film is going to be quite emotional for people.

'Because the film sort of tells you to think about yourself. You are going to be thinking: "F**k. What have I done with my life?"' 

T2 goes on general release across the United Kingdom on January 27, 2017. 

Racy: Adapted from Scottish author Irvine Welsh's 2002 novel Porno, T2 sees the reunited cast attempt to make a name for themselves in the lucrative adult film industry

Dramatic: 'I tell you, this film is going to be quite emotional for people,' Welsh told NME. 'Because the film sort of tells you to think about yourself. You are going to be thinking: "F**k. What have I done with my life?"'

Coming soon: T2 goes on general release across the United Kingdom on January 27, 2017 

 

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