Sherlock Holmes

London, 1890. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson arrive just in time to stop Lord Blackwood from sacrificing a young woman. Blackwood is arrested and hanged. Days later he rises from the grave and vows to rule England through fear. Watson, engaged to Mary Morstan, is moving out of 221B but gets pulled back in. Irene Adler, the one person who ever fooled Holmes, returns working for a mystery patron. Holmes breaks down every supernatural trick with science and sleight of hand, and it all ends in a fight on the half-built Tower Bridge. The case closes, but a part stolen from a machine hints at someone bigger behind it.

1. Behind the scenesA comic instead of a script

   Producer Lionel Wigram didn't pitch the studio with a script. He wrote a 25-page comic with artist John Watkiss about a more bohemian, hard-fighting Holmes.

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2. ReferenceBaritsu

   Downey and director Guy Ritchie both do martial arts, and the film's fighting starts from the baritsu mentioned in "The Adventure of the Empty House", the story where Holmes returns after Reichenbach.

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3. SetupMoriarty in the shadows

   Professor Moriarty was written in just to set up a sequel. He shows up little and almost never with a face, and the last scene leaves the case reopened.

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