Trainspotting: Exile Summary & Analysis

London Crawling. Rent Boy makes it to an apartment in London, but the people’s he’s looking for aren’t there, and it’s locked. A woman next door says they’ve been away for two days. Rent Boy goes for a walk around the city. He’s only been away from London for three months, but it already feels unfamiliar. He approaches a pub that’s been newly renamed “the Britannia” and reflects on how he’s definitely never felt British, but he’s also never quite felt Scottish. In fact, Rent Boy would be fine with abolishing countries in general.

Rent Boy goes into the Britannia and thinks it’s much worse than it was before the renovation. He commiserates with the bartender about the bar’s new customers, who act like yuppies but aren’t even that rich. Rent Boy goes back to the apartment and finds that it’s still locked, so he returns to the pub for more drinks. Afterward, he goes to a payphone and tries to call some of his old contacts in London, but they’ve all moved. He has one friend called Mel that he might try seeing in person, but Mel lives far away.

Rent Boy spends the night in a porno theater that screens movies all night. He falls asleep but suddenly wakes up to an old man (Gi) touching his thigh. Rent Boy gets angry and says he isn’t gay. The man apologizes, and Rent Boy almost feels bad. Rent Boy wonders how he knows for sure that he’s not gay if he’s never been with a man.

Rent Boy did once get oral sex from a drag queen in London, then he returned the favor, but Rent Boy didn’t like the plastic taste of sucking on a condom. His friends who own the London apartment walked in on Rent Boy in the middle of it, embarrassing him. Back in the present, Rent Boy muses that he doesn’t think there’s anything morally wrong with homosexuality, he just doesn’t find most men sexy. Rent Boy doesn’t find the old man who was touching him attractive, but he has a place near Mel’s, so Rent Boy goes with him.

The man introduces himself as Gi (short for Giovanni) and says he has a wife and kids back in Italy, but Rent Boy senses he might be lying. But Rent Boy is surprised when they finally make it back to Gi’s dingy apartment to find pictures of Gi’s family everywhere. Gi lets Rent Boy sleep in his bed. Rent Boy soon wakes up, however, with Gi’s semen on his face. He gets angry and starts beating Gi.

Gi starts saying the names of his wife and children, so at last Rent Boy stops attacking him and apologizes. He offers to take Gi to breakfast (which is conveniently closer Mel’s place). At breakfast, Gi tells Rent Boy about how he had to leave Italy after people discovered that his wife’s younger brother was his true lover. His wife’s older brothers beat up Gi and the younger brother, then the younger brother killed himself, so Gi left for England to work in Italian restaurants.

Rent Boy and finally makes it to Mel’s, where reggae music is still playing after an all-night party. Rent Boy enters and is thrilled to see several familiar faces. The English are more likely to smoke heroin instead of using needles like the Scottish, so Rent Boy takes a drag. Everyone there is confused about who Gi is. Gi ends up talking about soccer with some of them, so Rent Boy leaves him to talk to other people.

Rent Boy walks around the apartment and finds a room where a man and a woman are having sex only a couple feet away from where some people are shooting up heroin. Rent Boy figures maybe his theory about everyone in England smoking heroin instead of using needles is wrong after all. Rent Boy gets depressed that none of the women at the party seem to be available. He wonders if maybe having sex with Gi is his best option after all.

Bad Blood. Davie Mitchell meets a man named Alan Venters at his HIV support group. Venters doesn’t stay in the group long and doesn’t take very good care of himself, soon developing an infection. Most members of Davie Mitchell’s group have tested positive for HIV but don’t have any symptoms yet. When Venters enters hospice care, Davie Mitchell tells a counselor he wants to quit the support group.

Most members of Davie Mitchell’s HIV support group are drug users. Davie Mitchell himself isn’t. He thinks of Rent Boy, a friend of Davie Mitchell’s friend Tommy, and how Rent Boy has somehow been using needles for years without getting HIV. The heroin users in the support group look down on the two homosexual group members. Meanwhile, Davie Mitchell and a couple women who don’t use heroin but contracted HIV through partners look down on the drug users.

Davie Mitchell thinks back on his encounters with Venters at the support group. During an early meeting, Davie Mitchell lied and said he knowingly had unprotected sex with people after his HIV positive diagnosis. The counselor thanked Davie Mitchell for his honesty. Venters then got up and said he did the same thing. Afterward, Venters rolled his eyes and secretly smiled at Davie Mitchell.

Davie Mitchell remembers how Venters always acted like he was immortal during support group meetings. Davie Mitchell and Venters become friends, although for Davie Mitchell, Venters is often more like a test subject to scrutinize. When they go out drinking, Venters drinks heavily, which is likely how he weakened his immune system and got infected.

Davie Mitchell keeps thinking about how he went to visit Venters in hospice care several times, always fantasizing about a final visit when he’d get revenge on Venters. One day he goes and Venters is almost too weak to speak. Venters says it’s a pity he didn’t know Davie Mitchell earlier and Davie Mitchell agrees, but he is still thinking of revenge. He figures killing Venters would be too easy, so he decides to talk to Venters to try to find out what would be even better.

In his hospice talks with Venters, Davie Mitchell learns that one of the only people in the world Venters cares about was his five-year-old son, whose mother, Frances, doesn’t let the boy (Kevin) see Venters. Davie Mitchell then seeks out Frances, pretending to run into her by accident and winning her over as a result. When they have sex, he initially insists on using a condom but ultimately decides that he trusts her and would also do it without a condom. Frances is grateful that he doesn’t seem to think less of her because her old partner had HIV.

One day, right as Venters condition is sharply declining, Davie Mitchell volunteers to help Frances by babysitting Kevin. The Wednesday before babysitting, Davie Mitchell goes to visit his parents at their house. His mother is watching TV while his father reads the paper and makes racist comments about Chinese immigrants. Davie Mitchell leaves without telling them about his HIV.

On the Saturday that Davie Mitchell is babysitting, he brings some sharp tools from his toolbox. Frances goes out to a meal with some friends for the first time in a while. Davie Mitchell and Kevin have a good time. He begins to feel bad about what he’s doing, wondering if he is any better than Venters, and he feels worse even later when developing some photographs he took.

After developing the photos, Davie Mitchell goes to visit Venters at the hospice. Venters is happy to see him, but Davie Mitchell finally reveals why has been visiting. Davie Mitchell got HIV from having sex with a woman, and she told him that she got it after being raped at knifepoint by Venters. Venters tries to apologize and blame everything on his disease, but Davie Mitchell doesn’t want to hear it.

Davie Mitchell then pulls out his photos to show Venters. The first photos reveal him and Frances as lovers. Another photo shows him with Kevin on his shoulders. Then he shows a photo of Kevin naked, tied to a chair, and bleeding. Venters is horrified. Davie Mitchell says he tortured Kevin for twenty minutes before killing him. He tells Venters that Kevin’s last words were “Daddy.” Then he suffocates Venters with a pillow over his face and goes to find a nurse.

Later, Davie Mitchell goes to Venters’s funeral, and the minister gives a short speech because he has few good things to say about Venters. After the funeral, he goes to find Frances and Kevin. In reality, Davie Mitchell only knocked Kevin out with chloroform, then he staged his injuries with paint and makeup as part of his elaborate revenge plan.

Time passes, and Davie Mitchell and Frances break up. Davie Mitchell ends up back with the woman who initially gave him HIV (which she got from Venters). Eventually, Davie Mitchell tells his parents about his HIV diagnosis. At first his father seems too shocked to say anything, but later, his father cries and embraces him. Davie Mitchell vows to make the most of his life and survive as long as he can.

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. A group of people high on drugs enter a bar. The group includes Spud, Begbie, Rent Boy, Alison, and Kelly. They all drink while Kelly flirts with Rent Boy. They see a news report about a baby that died of cot death, which makes them think of Lesley’s dead baby, Dawn.

Spud wants to have sex. He’s been thinking recently about Nicola, who looks a little like Kylie Minogue. She isn’t currently at the pub, but a couple months ago they were out walking and having a good conversation, and he considered putting his arm around her. Then he thought of a line from the song by the Smiths “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out,” which is about missing an opportunity, and he decided not to put his arm around her after all. Spud generally only has sex with women more assertive than him. One memorable experience involved him in bondage, accidentally concussing his head against the side of a toilet bowl.

Back in the present, everyone eventually leaves the pub. It’s still dark, but Begbie suggests getting a big breakfast. Rent Boy doesn’t want to eat meat but ends up coming along, as do all the others. Begbie doesn’t drop the topic of vegetarianism, saying he remembers that Rent Boy used to kill animals with an air rifle all the time. Rent Boy is embarrassed that Kelly is there to hear about that, but he simply says he doesn’t like the taste of meat. Spud figures Rent Boy is doing the right thing for the wrong reason with his vegetarianism.

After breakfast, the group starts chanting soccer cheers and gets thrown out. They go to another pub, where Rent Boy and Kelly leave after a drink. Several drinks later, Alison says she’d like Spud to come stay with her for a while because she doesn’t want to be alone. Spud is pretty sure he knows what she means but can never be sure.

Feeling Free. In a pub, Kelly gets tired of listening to Alison say derogatory things about Rent Boy. She thinks it’s hypocritical that Alison wants to criticize Rent Boy when Alison has had sex with Sick Boy. Kelly says Rent Boy isn’t a junkie and only uses heroin sometimes, which Alison scoffs at. Kelly doesn’t push the issue, and Alison has to leave to see the Housing Department about unpaid rent. Kelly leaves with her.

The meeting at the Housing Department goes well, but Alison is still tense and reacts angrily on the way out when some workers catcall them. It turns into an argument, and some bystanders join in, including some Australian university students, who take Alison’s side. One of the workers who catcalled the women calls all the women lesbians, so one of the Australian students calls all the workers gay. Some of the workers seem embarrassed at the scene and don’t support the man’s catcalling. Eventually, a foreman comes over and tells his workers to mind their own business, which Alison, Kelly, and the students celebrate as a victory.

Alison and Kelly go to a café with the “Australian” students (who turn out to actually be New Zealanders and who in fact are lesbians). They talk for a long time, then they go back to Kelly’s place for tea and hash. They all complain about the men they know.

Suddenly, Rent Boy shows up at the door of Kelly’s apartment. He’s a surprised to see Alison and two stoned strangers there. The women all make fun of Rent Boy, with Kelly impersonating Begbie’s voice. Rent Boy takes it with good humor and leaves to let them to keep talking.

The Elusive Mr. Hunt. Kelly is working as a bartender. Sick Boy comes up to her and asks if she’s seen Mark Hunt. She says she’s seen Mark Renton (Rent Boy) but no Mark Hunt. Sick Boy says that’s not who he’s looking for, so Kelly shouts out to the bar if anyone has seen Mark Hunt. One says he hasn’t, but he’d like to. Rent Boy and Sick Boy both laugh, and when Kelly figures out why, she throws half a jug of water at them. She normally takes jokes well but isn’t sure why this time bothers her. Rent Boy notices she’s not laughing.