FILM · 2009 · USA
Sherlock Holmes
- Directed by
- Guy Ritchie
- Runtime
- 129 min
- Studio
- Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, Silver Pictures
43 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Eccentric consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson battle to bring down a new nemesis and unravel a deadly plot that could destroy England.
43 Interesting Facts About Sherlock Holmes
Interesting Facts (27)
- #001
- #002
- #003
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the film's original theatrical release, Professor Moriarty, who is seen only in shadow, was voiced by Andrew Jack. This was done before Jared Harris was officially cast as Moriarty in the sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). However, since the latter's premiere, all new DVD and Blu-ray copies, as well as all television broadcasts, have had Harris's voice dubbed over Jack's to maintain continuity.
- #004
Robert Maillet (Dredger), while filming a fight scene, accidentally knocked Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes) to the ground.
- #005
- #006
- #007
The film shows Watson pressuring Holmes to meet his fiancée Mary Morstan. Holmes is reluctant to do so. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories, Mary Morstan is introduced as a client (in the novel "The Sign of Four"). She and Watson fall in love while helping Holmes with her case, and at the end of the novel he proposes to her.
- #008
- #009
The stories describe Holmes as an expert in Baritsu. In the film, however, the martial art Holmes uses is Wing Chun (famously practiced by Ip Man and Bruce Lee). Robert Downey Jr. is a real-life practitioner of this art, and the fight scene between him and David Garrick at the Punch Bowl Pit was coordinated with the help of a trainer.
- #010
Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot used a special high-speed digital camera specifically to shoot the Punch Bowl fight scene. The key moment when Holmes punches his opponent in the jaw was filmed in real time as a one-second shot and turned into a seven-second shot without any post-production assistance.
- #011
Contains a major spoiler — show
Despite Moriarty's obsession with the Blackwood Device and his statement of how important it is to his plans, it plays no significant role whatsoever in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). However, "The Final Problem" states that Moriarty was involved in multiple criminal enterprises, so it is possible he had other plans for the device.
- #012
The film contains numerous references and allusions to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels and stories. Included are: * "The game is afoot." (from "The Abbey Grange," as well as the original source of the phrase, William Shakespeare's "Henry V"). * "Because I was looking for it." ("Silver Blaze"). * "You have the grand gift of silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion." ("The Man with the Twisted Lip"). * "Crime is common, logic is rare." ("The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"). * "My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work." (The Sign of Four). * "It makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on whom I can thoroughly rely." ("The Boscombe Valley Mystery"). * "Data, data, data. I cannot make bricks without clay." ("The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"). * "One begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." ("A Scandal in Bohemia"). * "There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you." ("The Hound of the Baskervilles").
- #013
- #014
The English bulldog belonging to Holmes and Watson is named Gladstone. It appears to be named after William Gladstone, who served four times as Prime Minister during Queen Victoria's reign. Gladstone is also a type of bag used by doctors at the time to carry their medical supplies, named after the man. William Gladstone is likewise the namesake of the billy club used by police in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
- #015
Mary asks Watson whether she can read his diaries about his adventures with Sherlock Holmes. Of the sixty Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Watson is the narrator in all but four: two are narrated by Holmes ("The Blanched Soldier" and "The Lion's Mane") and two by an omniscient narrator ("The Mazarin Stone" and "His Last Bow").
- #016
Contains a major spoiler — show
All the events take place in 1891. After the events at the shipyard, once Holmes and Watson are released, Inspector Lestrade gives Holmes a newspaper ("The National Police Gazette"). Its headline is "London In Terror" and it is dated Friday, 19 November 1891, yet oddly the first newspaper, which foretold Blackwood's execution and was given to Holmes by Watson in his rooms, is dated 13 November 1890. This places the story in the period when Holmes was believed dead in the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories. According to "The Final Problem," Holmes and Professor Moriarty apparently plunged to their deaths over the Reichenbach Falls in May 1891. Holmes did not reveal that he had survived until the spring of 1894, as told in "The Adventure of the Empty House."
- #017
Contains a major spoiler — show
In interviews, Guy Ritchie stated that he is a fan (and practitioner) of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which became popular in mixed martial arts. Toward the end of the film, Holmes and Watson fight Dredger and finally manage to subdue him with an armbar and a modified rear naked choke, both popular Brazilian jiu-jitsu techniques.
- #018
- #019
- #020
The scene in which Holmes and Watson draw a series of deductions from a dead man's watch closely mirrors a similar sequence in "The Sign of the Four" (such as Holmes's ability to trace a carriage's route while blindfolded), where Holmes uses nearly identical observations (scratches around the watch's keyhole, pawnbroker's marks inside the case) to draw information from a watch belonging to Watson's late brother. Holmes's passing reference to locking Watson's chequebook in his desk parallels a similar remark in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men," which commentators such as William S. Baring-Gould took to mean that Watson had a gambling problem, an interpretation the film adopts. Holmes also uses a riding crop as a weapon throughout the film, as in "A Case of Identity." In "The Six Napoleons," it is described as his "favorite weapon."
- #021
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the newspaper Lestrade gives Holmes when Holmes is released on bail, headlined "London In Terror: Blackwood Lives and the Devil Walks With Him," the names of Blackwood's first five victims, all women, are given. They are: Susan Willis, Margaret Coile, June Gray, Mary Wilson and Sarah Moss. The woman whose murder Holmes intervenes in is revealed to be named Beatrice Church.
- #022
- #023
- #024
- #025
- #026
- #027
Production Story (1)
- #028
Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot used a special high-speed digital camera specifically to shoot the Punch Bowl fight scene. The key moment when Holmes punches his opponent in the jaw was filmed in real time with a one-second shot and turned into a seven-second shot without any post-production assistance.
Easter Eggs & References (11)
- #029
- #030
Although Irene Adler plays a large role in the film (and in the "Baker Street irregulars" of the fiction), she appears in only one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, "A Scandal in Bohemia," which the film references only briefly. In that story Holmes keeps the portrait he acquired of Irene Adler for her services, and he also refers to her once as "the woman," as he does in the second story.
- #031
- #032
The bare-knuckle fight between Holmes and McMurdo references Holmes's story "The Sign of the Four." In the story, Holmes meets McMurdo and tells him: "I don't think you can have forgotten me. Don't you remember that amateur who fought three rounds with you at Alison's rooms on the night of your benefit four years back?"
- #033
- #034
- #035
- #036
- #037
- #038
Contains a major spoiler — show
The references to Blackwood's first victims resemble those of Jack the Ripper. The deduction scene in which Holmes, with the pentagram at the center of his map, explains the hidden meaning of the locations chosen for further murders appears to reference Alan Moore's graphic novel 'From Hell,' about Jack the Ripper and his possible connection to Freemasonry. Moore's graphic novel was loosely adapted as From Hell (2001).
- #039
Deeper Meaning (4)
- #040
- #041
The four symbols named in the film — Man, Lion, Ox and Eagle — are also attributed to the four Gospels of the Christian Bible: Matthew (Man, for Christ's humanity), Mark (Lion, for courage and action), Luke (Ox, for strength and perseverance) and John (Eagle, for clarity of vision and divinity).
- #042
- #043
Several details of the film recall "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone." The first is the name of the main villain, Lord Blackwood, which parallels that of Count Negretto Sylvius, the villain of "Mazarin Stone" (Negretto means black in Italian, and Sylvius means forest in Latin). As Holmes scholar W. W. Roberts noted, this is "probably a private joke at the expense of Blackwood's Magazine, which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle courted long and in vain in the 1880s." Another common detail is the Crown Diamond, an alternative name for the Mazarin Stone, which hangs around Irene Adler's neck in the film. "The Mazarin Stone" is also the first story to mention that the flat at 221B Baker Street has more than one exit and a waiting room. The extra exit through the bedroom is used by Holmes early in the film to follow Irene.
Related pages
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work