Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 picture edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s story bound character of the same name. The feature film was directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin.
In 1891 London, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) chase to stop a human sacrifice ritual conducted by Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). Holmes and Watson prevent the sacrifice just in time and neutralize Lord Blackwood, after which the cop, led by Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan), get there and catch him.
Blackwood’s execution occurs three months later, during which Holmes has become bored without a new case. Watson prepares to leave 221B Baker Street to establish his own business, and he intends to marry Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly). Blackwood requests Holmes’ presence on the day of his execution, and cautions him that three more deaths will occur after his execution that will change the very nature of their world. Later, Blackwood is executed by hanging, affirmed dead by Watson himself.
Holmes is re-acquainted with Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), the only one who has managed to outfox him. She offers him an amount of money to practice a case of a missing red-haired midget by the name of Reardon. Holmes disguises himself to find the identity of Adler’s employer, but can only guess him as a professor. Three days after Blackwood’s execution, his vault is found destroyed, from the inside out, and an witness reports seeing Blackwood walking away. Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade find Blackwood’s coffin contains the body of the red-haired midget. Holmes follows hints from a pocket timepiece on the body to the midget’s home, where they learn some chemistry experiments. They narrowly avoid capture by three thugs that have arrived to eliminate the proof in the house, but subsequently are caught for property damage. Watson is freed on bail by Miss Morstan, while Holmes is taken to the Temple of the Four Orders, an occult-dabbling secret society. Their leaders disclose Blackwood was an ex- associate, and plead for Holmes to help stop him. Holmes declines their kind offers of reward but continues to probe. As Holmes and Watson probe, the two superior members are killed through clear magical means by Blackwood, and he assumes control of the order, desiring to use the Order’s power to push for England to retake the United States after their civil war has weakened their defenses. Blackwood orders the home Secretary, a associate of the Order, to issue a warrant for Holmes’ capture.
Holmes and Watson go behind hints to an industrial slaughterhouse, where they are taunted by Blackwood and forced to release Adler from a deathly conveyor belt trap. Watson chases after Blackwood but is captured by a tripwire, setting off an explosion; Watson is able to alert Holmes and Alder to safety but is terribly injured himself in the explosion. Holmes learns he is wanted by the cop and goes into hiding, and reflects on the hints he has collected. He comes to realize that Blackwood is attempting to cast a spell based on the sphinx, with the three murdered tied to three of the mythical creature’s animal constituents: man, ox, and eagle. Holmes deduces the fourth, the lion, is symbolized by the English Parliament. Holmes allows Lestrade to capture and bring him to the house Secretary. Brash, the Secretary informs Blackwood’s plot for wiping out all the Lords but save those loyal supporters of his. Holmes escapes, diving into the river Thames, and is saved by a waiting boat with Watson and Adler in it.
Regrouping with Watson and Adler, Holmes takes them to the sewers below Parliament where they find a apparatus devised by the midget that is run by a remote trigger held by Blackwood that will discharge a cyanide derivative into the Parliament chambers. The three fight off Blackwood’s men and remove the cyanide cylinders from the machine. Adler grabs the cylinders and races away, followed by Holmes; Blackwood becomes alert his apparatus has failed and shortly follows thereafter. The three pull in at the top of the Tower Bridge, still under construction. Blackwood knocks Adler to a lower platform, where she falls unconscious. Holmes tricks Blackwood into becoming entangled in the ropes and chains, and Blackwood is soon hanging dangerously from these over the Thames while Holmes recounts that all of Blackwood’s “mystical” tricks were applications of science and trickery. Holmes intends for Blackwood to stand judgment but, tangled in ropes, Blackwood falls and is hanged by the chains. Holmes helps Adler get well, though handcuffs her. She explains that the mystifying caped man in the wagon is one Professor Moriarty. Holmes drops the key to the cuffs in Adler’s bosom and leaves her, returning to Watson. The police arrive to inform a dead officer found near Blackwood’s device, and Holmes deduces that chasing Adler and fighting Blackwood was a diversion by Moriarty, who used the diversion to take a key component of Blackwood’s remote control machine from the {machine|apparatus.
The film was released in the United States on December 25, 2009, and on December 26, 2009, in the UK, Ireland, and the Pacific. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 68% of 183 critics have given the feature film a positive review, with a rating average of 6.1 out of 10. The feature film opened to an estimated $65,380,000 in its first weekend, placing in second at the US box office to Avatar, which grossed $75 million.
