Sherlock Holmes (2009 film)
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| Sherlock Holmes | |
|---|---|
| Informations | |
| Origin |  United States |
| Director(s) | Guy Ritchie |
| Screenwriter(s) | Kieran Mulroney, Michele Mulroney |
| Music | Hans Zimmer |
| Producer(s) | Susan Downey, Dan Lin, Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram |
| Main cast | Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Mark Strong, Rachel McAdams, Eddie Marsan, Hans Matheson, Geraldine James |
| Production | Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Silver Pictures, Wigram Productions, Lin Pictures |
| Release | 25 December 2009.svg.png){kind=small} 25 December 2009 |
| Navigation | |
| Followed by | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows |
“The question is not if but how. The game's afoot.”
– The Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 American film directed by Guy Ritchie from a screenplay by Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney, produced by Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Silver Pictures and Wigram Productions, and distributed by Warner Bros. It's the first installment of Sherlock Holmes film series. The film takes place in 1891, where Sherlock Holmes and his loyal partner, Dr. Watson, investigate the mysterious activities of Lord Henry Blackwood, a serial killer who has resurfaced after being sentenced to death.
Conception
The conception of Sherlock Holmes (2009) originated with producer Lionel Wigram, who had been a lifelong admirer of Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories and, after leaving his position as an executive at Warner Bros., reread the original works and concluded that the familiar screen image of Holmes as an impeccably dressed Victorian gentleman had obscured a more eccentric and psychologically complex character. He envisaged a dishevelled, bohemian detective whose periods of extraordinary concentration alternated with spells of inactivity and depression, and whose intelligence, physical abilities and social difficulties could make him an unconventional action hero. Drawing on details scattered throughout Conan Doyle’s writing, including Holmes’s expertise in boxing, fencing and single-stick fighting, as well as his knowledge of the martial art of baritsu, Wigram believed these characteristics could provide the basis for a more energetic cinematic portrayal without abandoning the literary character. After developing his ideas into an original comic-book project, he began pursuing a feature-film adaptation, eventually bringing the concept to Warner Bros. and assembling a team to develop it. In interviews published during the film’s release, Wigram explained that his intention was to return to Conan Doyle’s descriptions rather than reproduce the familiar conventions established by earlier adaptations, particularly the screen image associated with Basil Rathbone.
Wigram’s proposal attracted director Guy Ritchie, who had previously become known for fast-paced crime films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000), and who was initially approached to direct an adaptation that he felt required further screenplay development. As the script was revised and the creative team established a shared interpretation of the detective, Ritchie became increasingly enthusiastic about the project, maintaining that the film would remain grounded in Conan Doyle’s work despite its action-oriented approach. The screenplay was written by Michael Robert Johnson and Anthony Peckham, with Simon Kinberg also contributing to its development, while Wigram received story credit and served as a producer. Rather than adapting a particular Holmes novel or short story, the writers devised an original case involving Lord Blackwood, a mysterious aristocrat whose apparent return from the dead threatens London; Wigram explained that the filmmakers wanted a plot with stakes substantial enough for a modern blockbuster, incorporating secret societies and apparently supernatural events while ultimately retaining Holmes’s reliance on observation, experimentation and rational deduction. Blackwood’s occult activities also drew inspiration from historical figures associated with Victorian esotericism, particularly Aleister Crowley.
Robert Downey Jr. became central to the project as it moved towards production, with producer Joel Silver helping bring the actor aboard following his successful appearances in Iron Man and Tropic Thunder in 2008. The filmmakers saw an opportunity to combine Downey’s expressive, unpredictable performance style with Ritchie’s approach to action and character, and the actor consequently interpreted Holmes as a brilliant but disorderly man whose restless mind and unusual habits distinguished him from the restrained gentleman familiar from earlier adaptations. Jude Law was cast as Dr. John Watson, creating a partnership intended to give Watson greater independence and physical competence than some previous screen versions had allowed him, while Rachel McAdams joined the cast as Irene Adler, Mark Strong as Lord Blackwood and Kelly Reilly as Mary Morstan. The relationship between Holmes and Watson was treated as a central element of the project, with the filmmakers emphasizing their mutual dependence, affection and frequent disagreements alongside the investigation itself. These casting and creative decisions were publicly presented in 2008, when Warner Bros. announced the film as a major new interpretation of Conan Doyle’s characters.
The production’s visual design centred on a reconstruction of London in 1890, with the city intended to function as more than a backdrop for the mystery, and production designer Sarah Greenwood assembled extensive photographic references to Victorian streets, docks, construction sites and working-class districts to create a convincing picture of a city undergoing rapid industrial expansion. The construction of Tower Bridge, the crowded Thames waterfront and the contrast between grand public buildings and impoverished neighbourhoods were particularly important to Wigram’s conception of the setting, while the filmmakers combined physical sets, existing historical locations and computer-generated imagery to recreate the period. Costume designer Jenny Beavan likewise rejected the assumption that Holmes had to wear the deerstalker cap and Inverness coat popularized by earlier adaptations, explaining that these garments were not defining elements of Conan Doyle’s descriptions; instead, Downey’s clothes reflected Wigram’s image of Holmes as a bohemian artist, while Watson’s sharply tailored, military-influenced suits emphasized his more disciplined character. Principal photography began in London in autumn 2008, and the completed film premiered in London in December 2009, establishing the intended combination of an original mystery, action sequences, elaborate period reconstruction and a more overtly physical portrayal of Holmes as the basis for a potential film franchise.
Plot
In Victorian London, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson interrupt a ritual sacrifice being carried out by Lord Henry Blackwood, an aristocrat and occultist who has already murdered five young women and is preparing to kill a sixth. Holmes and Watson follow Blackwood through the crypt, stop the ritual and hand him over to Inspector Lestrade, who arrests him and takes him into custody. Three months later, with Blackwood awaiting execution, Watson has become engaged to Mary Morstan and intends to leave 221B Baker Street after their marriage, while Holmes, without a case to occupy him, spends his time conducting experiments, disguising himself and looking for various distractions. Watson then tells him that Blackwood has asked to see him before his execution, so Holmes visits him in prison, where Blackwood claims that his death will only be the beginning and predicts that three more people will die before Holmes can understand what is happening. Watson is present when Blackwood is hanged and, as a doctor, confirms that he is dead, after which his body is placed in a coffin and taken to a cemetery for burial. A few days later, Irene Adler returns to London and meets Holmes, offering him money to find a man for her while refusing to explain why she wants him found; Holmes follows her in disguise and discovers that she is working for a mysterious employer, although he cannot identify the man. Soon afterwards, Lestrade summons Holmes and Watson to the cemetery because a groundskeeper claims to have seen Blackwood walking among the graves, and when they investigate, they find that Blackwood's coffin is empty and that another man, the scientist Thomas Reordan, has been placed inside it.
Holmes and Watson investigate Reordan's death and follow the clues found on his body to his laboratory, where they discover that he had been conducting scientific experiments involving chemicals, electrical equipment and other devices that Blackwood has apparently been using to create the appearance of supernatural powers. Before they can examine the laboratory properly, several of Blackwood's men arrive and set the building on fire, forcing Holmes and Watson to fight their way out before the police arrest them for the destruction caused during the confrontation. Holmes is subsequently taken to the Temple of the Four Orders, a secret organisation whose senior members include Lord Chief Justice Sir Thomas Rotheram, American Ambassador Standish and Home Secretary Lord Coward, where Rotheram explains that Blackwood was once a member of the Order and is his illegitimate son, and asks Holmes to stop him because Blackwood intends to use the organisation's influence and his supposed supernatural powers to seize control of Britain and eventually expand his power overseas. That same night, Rotheram is found dead in his bath after being paralysed by one of Blackwood's chemical devices, and Coward calls the other members of the Order together, announces that Blackwood will take Rotheram's place and then allows Blackwood to appear before them alive. Blackwood declares that he intends to use fear to control the population and eventually extend his power beyond Britain, but when Ambassador Standish attempts to shoot him, a chemical compound covering Standish's body catches fire and he runs to a window before falling to his death. Blackwood then gives the members of the Order a drink that he claims will protect them from his enemies, while Holmes continues examining the murders and the rituals connected with them.
Holmes discovers that Reordan's experiments were connected to a machine that Blackwood needed, and when he and Watson return to the investigation they locate the men responsible for attacking the laboratory and trace them to a slaughterhouse near the Thames. Inside, they find machinery belonging to Reordan and discover that Blackwood has captured Irene Adler, suspending her above the equipment and arranging for her to be carried towards a series of meat-cutting mechanisms. Holmes and Watson fight their way through the building and manage to stop the machinery before Adler is killed, but Blackwood detonates explosives and destroys the slaughterhouse, leaving the three of them to escape from the collapsing building. Adler then attempts to leave London, but her employer contacts her and orders her to obtain the machine that Reordan had built for Blackwood, warning her that Holmes will be killed if she fails. At the same time, Lord Coward uses his influence over the police to have Holmes arrested, forcing him into hiding, and Holmes studies the symbols and locations associated with Blackwood's murders until he realises that they form part of a larger ritual whose final target is Parliament. With Lestrade's help, Holmes allows himself to be arrested and is brought before Lord Coward, where he examines Coward's clothing and uses the traces he finds there to determine that Blackwood has recently conducted another ceremony in the sewers beneath the Palace of Westminster. Holmes escapes from Coward's office through a window, plunges into the Thames and is rescued by Watson, while Adler joins them as they make their way towards the underground passages beneath Parliament.
In the sewers, Holmes, Watson and Adler find Blackwood's men guarding the machine that Reordan constructed, which is designed to release a form of cyanide gas through the ventilation system and kill the members of Parliament gathered above. Blackwood has secretly provided his own supporters with an antidote, allowing them to survive while the rest of Parliament is poisoned, and he enters the chamber to announce that the deaths of the politicians will allow him to take control of the country. Holmes and Watson fight Blackwood's men while Adler works on the machine, eventually removing the cylinders containing the poison and disabling the device before Blackwood can activate it with his remote transmitter. Adler takes the cylinders with her and flees through the sewers, with Holmes following her, while Blackwood realises that his plan has failed and escapes in the opposite direction. Holmes catches up with Adler at the unfinished Tower Bridge, where Blackwood also arrives, knocks Adler unconscious and attacks Holmes. During the fight, Holmes explains how Blackwood created the appearance of supernatural events: his resurrection was achieved by arranging the rope and hooks used at his hanging so that his neck was not broken, while a chemical compound placed in his body produced a state in which his pulse became almost undetectable; the apparent murder of Sir Thomas was caused by a chemical agent that paralysed him before he drowned in his bath; Standish's death was caused by a flammable substance placed on his body and ignited when he fired his weapon; and the other apparent acts of magic were produced through similar combinations of chemistry, machinery and deception.
The fight continues across the unfinished bridge until Blackwood falls through the scaffolding and becomes caught in the chains hanging from the structure, leaving him suspended above the Thames with a chain wrapped around his neck. Holmes watches as Blackwood dies, and once the danger has passed, he finds Adler and revives her, then places her under arrest. Adler refuses to identify her employer at first, but eventually tells Holmes that the man behind her orders is Professor James Moriarty, whom she describes as someone Holmes should not underestimate. Holmes lets Adler go, and she disappears with the cyanide canisters. Back at Baker Street, Watson prepares to leave 221B and begin his new life with Mary, while Holmes remains in the rooms and reconstructs what happened during the final confrontation. A police officer then arrives with news that one of the men guarding Blackwood's machine has been found dead in the sewers, and Holmes examines the body before recognising the method used to kill him as belonging to Moriarty. He realises that the attack on Blackwood's machine was not simply an attempt to stop the assassination of Parliament: while Holmes, Watson and Adler were occupied with Blackwood and the cyanide device, Moriarty used Adler as part of the diversion and removed a crucial component from Reordan's machine, a device based on the newly developing science of radio. Holmes therefore takes up the new investigation, now knowing that Moriarty has entered the case.
Cast
- Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes
- Jude Law as John Watson
- Mark Strong as Lord Henry Blackwood
- Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler
- Eddie Marsan as Inspector Lestrade
- Hans Matheson as Lord Coward
- Geraldine James as Mrs. Hudson
- James Fox as Sir Thomas Rotheram
- William Hope as Ambassador John Standish
- Robert Maillet as Dredger
- William Houston as Constable Clark
- Andrew Jack as Professor Moriarty (voice)
Reception
To be added