20. Renton - Trainspotting
If you had to pick one movie that summarised the iconic status of British cinema in the 1990s, then Trainspotting is as good a choice as any. Posters for the film lined the walls of thousands of bedrooms in student accommodation, while the soundtrack was as memorable as anything which has accompanied a Quentin Tarantino movie. While Renton (played by Ewan McGregor) might have been something of an anti-hero, he nevertheless took on heroic proportions in popular culture, and the scene in which he is introduced - the very beginning of Trainspotting - is a masterclass in British cinema at its most stylish. The freeze frame on Renton's laughing face as he flees the police kicks off one of the most involving sequences in 90s cinema, while the "choose life" monologue has been quoted countless times since the film was released. While it didn't breed a generation of heroin addicts (as the tabloid press would have you believe) it spoke to the disenfranchised young adults of the time with a voice rarely heard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCxgqHqakXc