Roger Ebert’s site gave it 3.5/4 stars, calling it "a film about friendship that stabs at the ribs." For fans who grew up with the original, T2 hits harder. It forces the viewer to look in the mirror. If you were 18 in 1996, you are 40 now. How many of your friends have died, drifted, or gone to jail? This film answers that question for Renton, Spud, Sick Boy, and Begbie.

Throughout the movie, characters are constantly looking back. They watch old footage of themselves on screens—a meta-commentary on the audience’s own desire to see the gang back together. Spud serves as the living embodiment of the past; while the others have moved on (or tried to), Spud remains trapped in the cycles of addiction, his life a ruin of missed opportunities. The film posits that while you can visit the past, living there is fatal.