While leaving the auction house, Simon was distracted by a text message and got hit by a red car.

By leading Simon through an imagined narrative in which Franck wants to kill him, Elizabeth learns the painting's location.

When Franck hit Simon on the head, it brought back a vague sense of his memories of Elizabeth.

In his confused state, he imagined the female driver who hit him as Elizabeth and strangled the woman to death.

When Elizabeth hypnotized Simon to make him forget her, she also told him to steal a painting for her as payback for his abuse.

Franck can try to find Elizabeth and recover the painting, or he can open "Trance", an app on the iPad with a recording of her voice that will erase her and the whole ordeal from his memory–the choice to remember or forget is his.

[6][7] Boyle never forgot it, and, almost two decades after their original conversation, he contacted Ahearne about turning it into a feature film.

[13][14] McAvoy, who accepted his role in 2011, said that, while reading the script, he almost turned down the part because Simon seemed to be a victim, which didn't interest him.

He told NPR's reporter Laura Sullivan: "And then I got about 15 or 20 pages in, and I started to sense that something else was coming in the character.

"[9] He also said that he originally intended to set the movie in New York City,[17] but it was filmed in London and in Kent instead, as Boyle's Olympic ceremony duties meant he had to stay in the United Kingdom.

[18] Additional filming took place in late November 2011 at the Notre-Dame du Haut chapel in Ronchamp, France.

[20] Underworld previously contributed tracks to other Danny Boyle films, including Trainspotting (1996), A Life Less Ordinary (1997), The Beach (2000), and Sunshine (2007).

Exactly one month and three days after we said goodbye in the stadium, I received a text from Danny that said, 'Do you ever want to hear from me again workwise and would that go as far as having a chat about Trance...

Then, answering seriously, he said that they both like electronic music and that he doesn't prescribe a sound for a scene, but lets Smith follow his own instincts.

[21][23] Boyle showed a teaser trailer for the film and an extended version of an alternate ending at South by Southwest on 9 March 2013.

[24][25] The entire film could not be screened at the festival, as is usually done, because the producing studio Pathé owned the rights to the world premiere,[26] which was held in London on 19 March 2013.

On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 68% based on reviews from 160 critics; the site's consensus is: "As stylish as ever, director Danny Boyle seems to be treading water with the surprisingly thinly written Trance -- but for fans of Boyle's work, it should still prove a trippily entertaining distraction".

[33] Washington Post writer Michael O'Sullivan described Boyle as "playing fast and loose with reality.