Plot

The film takes place in 1890. The greatest detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson prevent the last of six ritual sacrifices. The culprit of the crimes, the mysterious Lord Blackwood, is sentenced to death.

For the next three months, Holmes is bored - he cannot find a worthwhile business for himself, and besides, the engagement and moving of a friend only add fuel to the fire. Still, John manages to persuade Sherlock to go to dinner and meet his fiancée Mary Morstan, but the evening ends in scandal.

Meanwhile, Lord Blackwood, sentenced to death by hanging, taunts his fellow inmates and guards. The entire prison is in panic, and all of London is waiting for the warlock's death. The gallows are erected, Blackwood's last wish is a date with Sherlock Holmes, the man who stopped him.

The next morning, Sherlock is visited by his old acquaintance - the world famous criminal Irene Adler, with whom he has complex feelings. She offers him money to find a man - a red-haired dwarf named Luke Rierden. Sherlock refuses, although he then secretly pursues her to find out who her customer is.

Returning home, Holmes and Watson receive unpleasant news - Lord Blackwood has “resurrected from the dead”: his gravestone knocked out from the inside, and in the coffin was the body of the dwarf whom Irene was looking for. Now Watson's reputation as a doctor is at stake, for he pronounced Blackwood dead at execution.

Visiting Rierden's house, Holmes and Watson learn that he communicated with the "late" lord. They could find out more, but Blackwood's men break into the house to destroy traces of the victim's mysterious experiments. A brawl begins, two of Blackwood's henchmen are neutralized, but their accomplice, the thug Dredger, destroys the props of the ship under construction during the brawl, which gradually spread to the shipyard territory. Holmes and Watson are taken into custody for causing damage to someone else's property. Watson is soon released on bail, which Mary posted. Holmes is also given bail and taken to a secret occult society - the Temple of the Four Orders. The leadership of the order - Chief Justice Sir Thomas Rotheram, Home Secretary Howard and British Ambassador to the USA John Standish - ask Sherlock to stop Blackwood. According to them, a former member of the order is going to call upon a mysterious force with which he will change the world. In the conversation, Holmes realizes that Sir Thomas is Blackwood's father, and warns him that he may be the next victim, since the rest of the Blackwood family are already dead.

Irene gives Holmes wine and sleeping pills.

Realizing that Blackwood's people are “covering their tracks,” Holmes goes to Irene to warn her of the danger. When Sherlock refuses to leave with her, Irene drugs him with wine and a sleeping pill and runs away. Waking up, Holmes learns that Sir Thomas was killed in his house that evening. There he finds a secret room with a picture of a sphinx.

At a secret meeting of Temple members, Howard announces Blackwood as the new head. Standish opposes this idea, saying that the “forces” Blackwood appealed to cannot be controlled. Blackwood, who came to the meeting, openly tells the US ambassador that the “former colony” will once again return to the fold of the British Empire with Blackwood at its head. Standish shoots at him, but he himself begins to burn and throws himself out of the window in panic. The Temple members, who believed in the power of Blackwood, accept the cup from Howard’s hands and drink from it as a sign of loyalty. Finally, Blackwood gives the command to the Minister of the Interior to bring Holmes.

Following new leads, Holmes and Watson go to an industrial factory, where they meet Blackwood. But they miss it because of Irene, who has to be rescued from a pork band saw. In addition, Blackwood leaves behind an explosive device, causing the factory to fly into the air.

Recovering from the explosion, Holmes discovers that Howard has issued a warrant for his arrest. After making sure that Watson is alive, Holmes goes underground. The next morning, he tells John and Irene his version: the five murdered girls symbolized the five ends of the pentagram, and the murder sites of the three men represent three of the four ends of the cross, and the murdered themselves represent parts of the sphinx: Rierden represents the man, Sir Thomas the bull (he wore a ring with a bull), the US Ambassador wore an eagle (the eagle is the national symbol of the country). Holmes calculates that Blackwood's last point with the lion symbol is the British Parliament (where the "lions" of the Government meet). It is there that he will strike his final blow.

The conversation is interrupted by police suddenly bursting in. Watson and Irene manage to escape, and Holmes deliberately surrenders and is sent to Howard, who, as it turns out, was Blackwood's accomplice from the very beginning. The minister reveals to the detective Blackwood's plan - to kill all members of parliament, except those close to him, in order to then usurp power in the empire. Having found out everything, Holmes escapes. Joining John and Irene, they swim under the Parliament sewers, where they discover a chemical device created by Rierden. As soon as you press the button on the transmitter, which is in the hands of Blackwood, the entire parliament will be filled with poisonous gas. While Watson and Holmes fight the guards, Irene manages to knock the poison cylinders out of the device, but immediately escapes with them. Holmes catches up with her at the very top of the Tower Bridge under construction, where Blackwood suddenly appears - his plan failed and now he wants revenge. He throws Irene off the bridge, but she survives falling onto the crossbar. Holmes and Blackwood clash, and the battle ends with Sherlock's victory. While Blackwood is hanging by his hands over the Thames, Holmes tells him that all the “mystical” powers were just ordinary chemical tricks of Rierden, and there was no trace of magic: Blackwood broke open his grave in advance, and then glued all the fragments back together with the help of he killed Sir Thomas with a solution of eggs and honey made by Rierden, adding a paralyzing poison made by Rierden into his bath, and Standish burned from a special reagent that ignites at the slightest spark (a blank cartridge was inserted into the gun in advance), and the same reagent caused a powerful explosion at the factory. Nevertheless, he saves the lord so that he will answer for his crimes in court, but a suddenly fallen beam pulls the criminal along with it, and Blackwood dies from strangulation with a chain. Holmes goes to Irene, she reveals that her mysterious employer is Professor Moriarty, who is as smart as Holmes and much more dangerous than Blackwood. Finally, he gives her the keys to the handcuffs, in exchange for the diamond on her neck, which later became Mary Morstan's engagement ring.

At the end of the film, Holmes tells Watson and his bride how the “magician” managed to avoid the first hanging and pretend to be dead (the executioner was bribed in advance to attach a hidden hook to his collar, and the fake death was made using rhododendron extract). After this, the police come and report the death of one of the sergeants near the sewer pipe, who was shot on the day of Lord Blackwood's capture. Holmes, thanks to his ingenuity, understands that the killer is Professor Moriarty, who was hunting for part of Rierden's machine. His goal was a wireless device, and Irene was just a distraction, since the professor knew perfectly well that Holmes would run after her and leave the car unattended. In the last scene of the film, Holmes decides to start a new investigation.

Video on the topic

Cast

Russian dubbing

• Vladimir Zaitsev - Sherlock Holmes
• Vasily Dakhnenko - Doctor John Watson
• Ramilya Iskander - Irene Adler
• Alexey Ryazantsev - Lord Blackwood
• Andrey Kazantsev - Inspector Lestrade
• Marina Bakina - Mrs. Hudson
• Alexandra Fathi - Mary Morstan
• Alexander Novikov - Sir Thomas Rotheram

Casting

References to literary sources

Although the film's plot is not based on any of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories or novellas, it contains numerous hidden and direct references to them.

Holmes repeatedly repeats his own lines from different works:

• “My brain rebels against idleness. Give me a case! Give me a problem! ("The Sign of Four")
• "The game is on" ("Murder at Abbey Grange", where this phrase, in turn, is borrowed from the play "Henry V" by Shakespeare)
• "I only noticed him because I was looking" ("Silver")
• “You are endowed with a great talent for silence, Watson. Thanks to this ability, you are an indispensable comrade" (“The Man with the Cleft Lip”)
• “Crime is an everyday thing. Logic is rare" (“Copper beeches”)
• “When there is no clay at hand, what should you use to make bricks from?” ("Copper Beeches")
• “You cannot theorize before the facts appear. Inevitably you begin to adjust the facts to your theory, rather than build a theory based on the facts" ("Scandal in Bohemia")

The image of the main antagonist of the film - Lord Blackwood - may be a reference to the story “The Mazarin Stone”, where the Italian count Negretto Silvius (from Italian ne(g)ro - “black” and Italian sivano - “forest”) is trying to kill Holmes. Surname Blackwood in English means "black forest". The intrigue in the story is built around a large yellow diamond - the “Mazarin stone”; Irene Adler wears the same stone around her neck in the film.

The scene in which Holmes and Watson discuss the watch found on the corpse is a direct reference to the beginning of the story “The Sign of Four", where Holmes similarly examines Watson’s watch, which he inherited from his late brother, and finds the same signs (scratches near the key hole, pawn shop marks). The fact that Holmes competed in amateur boxing matches is also mentioned in the story “The Sign of Four” by a gatekeeper named McMurdo, and the name of Holmes’ partner is listed in the credits as McMurdo (David Garrick). Watson's checkbook, locked in a desk drawer, is mentioned in the story "The Dancing Men".

Irene's final line, "A storm is rising," may be a reference to Holmes's final monologue from the story "His Farewell Bow," where the phrase "Yes, soon there will rise such an east wind as never before blew upon England" is a gloomy prophecy of the imminent First World War.

Artistic Features

Awards

Awards and nominations

Robert Downey Jr. received a Golden Globe film award for his role as Holmes in the category “Best Actor - Comedy or Musical.” Hans Zimmer was nominated for the Critics' Choice Award for Best Composer, but the award went to Michael Giacchino for Up. The film was nominated for an Oscar in the categories “Best Music” and “Best Production Design”. The film received an award from Empire magazine as best thriller. The film received award nominations Vits in categories " The best music" and "best effects".

Box office

Based on worldwide box office results, Sherlock Holmes grossed $515,645,514, of which $209,028,679 came from the United States and $306,616,835 from the world.

"Comic Book Adaptation"

According to the film company, the film was supposed to be a film adaptation not of the original works of Conan Doyle, but of the comic books of the same name by Lionel Wigram, in which the emphasis was on Holmes the adventurer, and not on his phenomenal ability to use the deductive method. As a result, the comic was not released, but some of the characters were used as the basis for the film. Artist John Watkiss, commissioned by Wigram, drew a small graphic novel of 25 pages; no further work was carried out in this direction. It was later revealed that the "comic" was a showcase of Guy Ritchie's vision of Holmes. Moreover, the appearance of the characters in it is similar to the appearance in the film.

Soundtrack

All compositions for the film were written by Hans Zimmer. Instead of standard symphonic music to the film is a mix of gypsy fiddles, banjos and an out-of-tune piano, designed to illustrate the chaos going on in Holmes's head. [ ]

The composer admits:

Additional facts

• This is the first Sherlock Holmes film to be released in America in twenty years. In 1988, the comedy “Without a Single Evidence” with Michael Caine was released.
• Filming took place from October 3, 2008 to January 2009, in the area around London and Manchester, where many picturesque 19th-century warehouses remain. The interior of 221b Baker Street was assembled from props that were used to furnish Sirius Black's home in the film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and the staircase that Holmes descends at the beginning of the film was taken from the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
• Many scenes were filmed in real buildings. So, in London the group worked in St. Paul's Cathedral, in the Freemasons' Hall and in the Church of Bartholomew the Great, in Manchester - in the city hall, and in Liverpool and Kent - in the ancient docks.
• Producer Lionel Wigram, former studio senior vice president Warner When thinking about creating a picture, I focused not on the script lines, but on spectacular pictures. For this, John Watkiss, a British artist who had previously worked on many films and comics, was invited to participate in the preparation of the film, who made a series of black and white sketches for the script. As a result, the company team liked this idea. Warner, as a result of which she gave the go-ahead to finance the project.
• To prepare for the role, Robert Downey Jr. read books about Sherlock Holmes and watched "

Sherlock Holmes- detective consultant main character series. He is the world's first consulting detective, because... He invented such a profession for himself. Holmes has an extraordinary passion for strange and unusual crimes that have many mysteries and secrets - without such cases he quickly becomes bored. To keep his brain active, he uses nicotine patches (instead of a traditional pipe).

Holmes is unusually smart and observant. His ability to notice and draw conclusions from seemingly small things is unmatched and is his main tool in solving the crimes he investigates. However, his unusual views, mostly of an antisocial nature, served as a reason for hostility and rejection from others.

At the time of the meeting with John Watson, he said “Afghanistan or Iraq?”, and also told him almost everything about John Watson himself, which put John in a state of shock.

At the beginning of the series he appears as a little-known private detective, but, according to Watson, Holmes will become “almost world famous.”

Possibilities

Since Sherlock is the brother of Mycroft Holmes, who works for the British government, he very often resorts to Mycroft's connections and sometimes to his help.

Capabilities

Sherlock has the ability to “go to the Mind Palace.” This means that he can get to any point of his consciousness, examine it and even resort to detailed search and analysis.

It is well known that the idea to write a popular detective story about the detective Sherlock Holmes came to the mind of the writer Agatha Christie while she was working in a pharmacy in a military hospital. She crushed the ingredients to prepare the medicine in a mortar and came up with a plot - a mysterious murder by poisoning.

Who was the real Sherlock Holmes?

Agatha Christie invented appearance famous detective Hercule Poirot completely by accident: she copied him from a neighbor who lived not far from her house. It was a neat, clean A tall man with a magnificent mustache, a connoisseur of good cuisine and a sweet tooth who prefers hot chocolate to alcohol.

Observational surgeon

But Sherlock Holmes had real prototype. In the fall of 1911, the London magazine Hospital published an obituary, “The Death of a Great Educator,” in which it informed its readers that on October 4, at the age of 74, the chief surgeon of the Royal Edinburgh City Hospital, Professor Joseph Bell, who trained a galaxy of outstanding doctors, died. Among them was Arthur Conan Doyle.

The famous writer met him while a medical student at the University of Edinburgh. The professor was not only an excellent surgeon, but also a person with exceptionally developed powers of observation. “Most people look, but they don’t observe. If you take a closer look at a person, at first glance you can determine his nationality, his hands will tell about his profession, his gait and manners - about many other things... Even the threads stuck to his jacket can tell a lot.

The real Sherlock Holmes Joseph Bell (Joseph Bell)

An attentive doctor can almost accurately tell in just a minute what a talkative patient is complaining about...” Indeed, while owning , Bell noticed the smallest details. For example, no sooner had the patient crossed the threshold of his office than the owner asked him to calm down. When the patient asked how the doctor knew that he was really very excited, the answer was: “Carefree people usually knock on the door two, rarely three times. And you knocked four...” Or, starting a conversation, Bell confidently said that his visitor came to him on foot from the suburbs and entered Edinburgh from the south side through the golf course. The professor quickly dispelled the bewilderment: “You know, in the whole city there is only red soil. When it rains, it naturally sticks to your shoes. It had just rained at night, and the ground had not yet dried out. You can tell by the marks your shoes leave on the floor that you were there.”

The infectious deduction of Sherlock Holmes

Or, for example, to the delight of students, before starting a medical examination, Bell once categorically told a patient that he had recently retired with the rank of sergeant in a mountain rifle regiment after serving in Barbados, and was now earning his living as a shoemaker, but things were going well not too good. And besides, the sick wife had to be admitted to the hospital. That's how it was. “This man showed courtesy and politeness when entering the office, but did not remove his hat. This is a military habit. If he had retired a long time ago, he would have learned civilian manners,” Bell explained. - The patient behaves with authority, and this indicates that he was a commander.

As for Barbados, where only the mountain regiment is based, the patient is suffering from elephantism, a disease that is quite widespread among the inhabitants of the West Indies. The type of current occupation is indicated by a wide calloused thumb, often in contact with the draught. The financial situation is really unimportant, since I had to pawn my watch - an empty watch chain hangs from my vest pocket. And from another pocket peeks out a hospital coupon for hospitalization, which means that the wife ( wedding ring on the patient’s finger) began to undergo treatment in the hospital, and as a result, the poor fellow has to make his own bed, as evidenced by the lint on his clothes.”

After graduating from university in 1881, Arthur Conan Doyle chose the profession of a ship's doctor, and later tried to open a medical practice. But, alas, fortune turns its back on him. The doctor decided to fix his financial condition and began to write detective stories, the main character of which was a detective who could not only observe, but also draw conclusions - just as Professor Bell did.

All that remained was to choose a name for the future hero. Everything was decided ingeniously simply: taking the name of the then famous cricket player Sherlock, the writer combined it with the name of the American doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes. And the detective’s faithful companion was named Dr. Watson, after the name of a dentist who actually lived on Baker Street.

Fate turned out to be favorable to the aspiring writer - a series of stories published by an American publisher brought success to Conan Doyle. Thus, before his death in 1930, the unlucky doctor gave fans of the adventure genre 56 short stories and 4 tales about the great detective.

Sherlock Holmes Mishanenkova Ekaterina Aleksandrovna

Key dates in the life of Sherlock Holmes (those that can be determined)

1854 (approximately) - Sherlock Holmes is born.

1874 to 1877 (approximately) - Somewhere during these years Holmes graduated from college and solved his first case (Gloria Scott).

1881 - Holmes rents an apartment at 221B Baker Street and meets Dr. Watson. At this time he is about 27 years old. "A study in Scarlet".

1883 - “The Motley Ribbon.”

1887 - “The Reigate Squires.”

1888 - Watson marries Mary Morstan and moves out of his Baker Street apartment. "The Sign of Four".

1889 (approx.) - Meets Irene Adler. "Scandal in Bohemia". "The Hound of the Baskervilles."

In 1891 - the alleged death of Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls. "Holmes's Last Case."

1891–1894 - Holmes travels. He visited Florence, Tibet, visited Lhasa and spent several days with the Dalai Lama, traveled all over Persia, visited Mecca, visited the caliph in Khartoum (and reported about this to the British Foreign Secretary). Then he returned to Europe, spent several months in the south of France, in Montpellier, where he studied substances obtained from coal tar.

I'm interested in every little thing, no matter how ridiculous it may be.

1894 - Holmes “revives” and returns to London. Having finished with the remnants of Moriarty's organization, he again settles on Baker Street along with Watson, widowed during the years of his absence, and returns to detective work. "Empty house".

1895 - “Drawings of Bruce-Partington”, “Lonely Cyclist”, “Three Students”, “Black Peter”.

1896 - “The Case of an Unusual Tenant.” Around this time, Holmes recovers from his drug addiction ("The Lost Rugby Player").

1897 - “Murder at Abbey Grange”, “Devil's Foot”.

1899 - “Moscatelnik at rest.”

1902 (approx.) - Watson marries again and moves out of Baker Street again.

1904 - Holmes retires and goes to Sussex, where he breeds bees.

1907 - Holmes finds a dead body and temporarily returns to work as a detective. "Lion's Mane"

1912 - Following the request of the Prime Minister, Holmes travels to America and joins a secret Irish society to uncover a spy ring in London.

1914 - Holmes's last case, the discovery of a spy network. At this time he was about sixty years old. "His farewell bow."

1923 (approx.) - Holmes advises Watson to write about "The Man on All Fours", which suggests that they were both alive and still friends in 1923.

Of the last fifty-three crimes I solved, only four became known to have been committed by me, while the remaining forty-nine were accounted for by the police.