Sherlock Holmes is the titular main protagonist of 2009 film Sherlock Holmes and its 2011 sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. He is a genius and joking consulting private detective and frequently solves cases alongside his best friend and partner Dr. John Watson. In the first film, his talents was challenged by Lord Henry Blackwood who claimed that his evil plans was something that the eccentric detective cannot solve, let alone to stop it. In spite of the odds, Holmes revealed that he can prove otherwise by both comprehending the very witchcraft Blackwood capable of and even exposed him as fraud.
Later on, his talents was challenged by his nemesis Professor James Moriarty who conspires to aiding his allies to help instigating the first World War. After saved both newly married Mary and Watson from Moriarty's goons, he and Watson track down Moriarty and in spite of them failed to stop the said conspiracy, Holmes sacrificed himself to defeat Moriarty in the end.
- 1 History
- 2 Personality and Traits
- 3 Abilities
- 4 Gallery
He was born in 1854 in London and had a brother Mycroft Holmes, who is a government official. Some time later in life, he met Dr. John Watson, a medical veteran of the second Afghan war and they become flatmates as well a best friends. They went about solving cases together.
In the beginning of the first film, Holmes beats up Lord Blackwood's men and proceeds downstairs to the ritual chamber where Lord Blackwood, a arcane cultist and anarchist, was performing a "satanic ritual" and was going to use the girl as a sacrifice. Lord Blackwood would have already killed five women in satanic rituals prior to the events of the film. Sherlock rendezvous with Dr. John Watson and together they manage to stop the ritual, beat up the thugs and have Lord Blackwood arrested by Inspector Lestrade.
Meanwhile Holmes begins eccentric experiments with flies and then even gets invited to dinner with Watson and Watson's fiance' Mary Morstan. Holmes use this deductive skills to outline her history and personality which causes her and Watson to angrily leave. Meanwhile Lord Blackwood requests to see Holmes and warns him that three more people will die and there is nothing he can do to stop this. After thus, Blackwood is convicted for practicing black magic and is hanged.
The "Resurrection" of Blackwood
Irene Adler, an American adversary of Holmes with whom he has a complicated relationship with, visits him and questions him about Luke Reordan. Holmes manages to follow her to her secret intimidating employer. Afterwards he and Watson are called by Inspector Lestrade to the graveyard where the groundskeeper made claims of a resurrected Blackwood and how he broke out of his tomb. The police find that Reordan is in the grave and dead. Holmes inspects the body and finds clues to Reordan's secret lab where they discover remnants of his "alchemical" experiments.
Holmes deduces that Reordan's experiments were a success because he was killed. Holmes and Watson later battle Blackwood's thugs, who have come to destroy the evidence. After a brief battle with the thugs and a French Brute, the duo give Blackwood's brute a chase to a shipping yard where their battle causes the shipping yard to collapse and Holmes and Watson are arrested afterwards.
Meeting the Temple of Four Orders
During the duo's time in jail, Watson is bailed out by his fiancé, whereas Holmes had to spent the night at jail. He managed to keep his inmates entertained and even eared their respect until Inspector Lestrade arranges for his release. After his release, his head is bagged and take to the lair of the Temple of Four Orders where he meets with their leaders. He deduces their identities and even deduces that their main leader Lord Chief Justice Sir Thomas Rotherham is Blackwood's illegitimate secret biological father. The leaders ask Holems to stop Blackwood and evener reveal that he was a former member of the Order. Holmes then accept the case and left but not without warned everyone in the room that the chance where Sir Thomas will die is much more likely.
Blackwood Demoralizing Holmes
While visiting Irene, she drugged him and possibly took advantage of him before leaving him at the hotel. After the police discovered Holmes, they brought him to the crime scene of Sir Thomas, where he found a secret mystic ritual chamber and took some artifacts. Not long after this, Sir John Standish is killed by Spontaneous Combustion, when Standish tried to shoot Blackwood after he declared himself the new master of the Temple of Four Orders.
Holmes and Watson investigated a dead man's body to uncover a river warehouse location, which they head over to shortly. They charter a boat to the warehouse where the boat's deck hand and Holmes joke about Watson's sea sickness. At the Warehouse Blackwood mocked Holmes's logic and demoralized him, to which Holmes commented on what a busy afterlife Blackwood is having. After setting the alehouse of fire, they discover Irene chained up and save her from a saw-machine. Blackwood manages to set off an explosion that nearly kills Watson. Holmes, posing as a doctor, checks up on Watson while Watson's fiance' who recognizes him, reassures him to make Blackwood pay.
Discovering Blackwood's Mystical System
While trying to figure out how Blackwood manages to pull off all of this, he tries the Temple's magical ritual and discover the mystical connections to the murders and event. He explains his results to a recovered Watson and Irene. He explained to them the Temple believe that the Sphinx is a gateway to immeasurable power. The Sphinx is made up of the tail of an ox, the foot of a lion, the head of a human being and the wings of an eagle. The Satanic Pentagram represents the five murdered girls. The Anti-Christ Cross on the map of England so far represents the three people that Balckwood has murdered post-resurrection. He also detailed how Reordan who represents man was killed with earth. John Standish, an American ambassador where the Eagle has been he symbol of freedom was killed by fire. Sir Thomas, who wore the Ox ring, was killed by water via drowning. They deduced that he would use gas to murder the Lion which represented British Parliament.
Saving British Parliament
Holmes makes an arrangement with Inspector Lestrade to have him delivered to Coward so as to discover Blackwood's lair. Upon playing mind games with Coward and analyzing various minimal factors around the room, he deduced that Blackwood's device waist the sewers beneath British Parliament. He escapes Coward's attempts to kill him and alongside Irene and Watson makes his way to the sewers beneath British Parliament where they discover Blackwood's men guarding a chemical dispersion device connected to the Parliament's air-vent systems.
The manage to defeat the guards, only to encounter the French Brute that Holmes fought earlier. They manage to defeat him and damage the device, causing Blackwood to flee. However, upon seeing Holmes, he opted to follow him to the unfinished London Tower Bridge where after a brief conversation with irene, Blackwood leaps in and holds Irene hostage, but opts to throw her off the bridge and engage Holmes.
Revealing Blackwood's Magic and His Death
Holmes engaged Blackwood in hand-to-hand combat, one where Blackwood managed to get the upper hand until Holmes gets him trapped on a chain to a large pipe hanging off his leg and him holding on. A Black Crow appears and Holmes reveals how Blackwood's 'magic' was really conjuring tricks. Blackwood's men paid a guard to pretend to be under Demonic Possession, while his reputation and the inmate's fear did the rest. He also revealed how he broke out of his tomb by replacing his Sandstone slab on his tomb with a slab made of an ancient Egyptian adhesive mixture which was washed off by the rain, making him appear it to be a result to Blackwood breaking out using Superhuman Force.
He also revealed how he replaced Sir Thomas's bath soaps with a paralytic which was activated with a combination of water and his copper ring, making Sir Thomas Drown to Death, and the bath water was drained away prior to Holmes arrival. He revealed how John Standish's Spontaneous Combustion was the result of a powerful flammable undetectable compound which was sprayed on him at the Temple's door step as Standish confused it for rain and all it took to set it off was a rigged bullet in Standish's gun.
His grandest performance was their revealed to be a Chemical Weapon which was distilled from Cyanide Gas and refined in the bellies of Swines in a Slaughter House, which was intended to be released into British Parliament with remote control. His followers in parliament would've watched as the others in British Parliament died believed it was all Magic, when in reality they were already Vaccinated against the Cyanide Gas by drinking the antidote in the form of Holy Water. The world would've followed Blackwood as he had harnessed the true power, which was Fear. Holmes saves Blackwood and states that Holmes plans to expose Blackwood as a fraud and have him properly hanged. He even stated Blackwood should hope that it was all superstition as he performed all the rituals perfect and the Devil's due a soul. Blackwood tries to kill Holmes, before the weight of a roof piece from a crane came collapsing down on him and it resulted in Blackwood being legitimately hanged to death.
He went over to Irene and handcuffed her, as they discussed who Moriarty was. Irene warned Holmes to not underestimate him as he is far more devious, but just as brilliant as Holmes is. Holmes put left her the keys and walked away. Back at the apartment, Watson and his fiancé discover that Holmes has hanged himself. Watson wakes Holmes up and Holmes explains how Blackwood Faked his Death by having the rope's hook actually dispersed on his waist, leaving his neck intact. He then took a Turkish paralytic chemical compound which put him in a deep coma, thus losing his pulse to almost a halt.
As Holmes sat down, a police officer arrived demanding Holmes to investigate a dead sergeant's body. Holmes and Watson deduce that the officer was shot at point blank range in his eye with a small caliber bullet via Professor Moriarty's retractable little gun. They even deduced that he was actually after a piece of the Chemical Dispersion Device that Blackwood intended to use. He even made Irene run off with the Cyanide as Holmes chased after her, leaving the machine unattended and the remote command device in Moriarty's possession.
Personality and Traits
The eccentric best friend of Watson, Holmes deeply cares with both his partner-in-crime an Mary despite constantly annoying them with his antics (such as using Mary's dog Gladstone as guinea pig for certain drugs, sleeping in the middle of demonstrating methods to faking suicide by hanging, finding the way to silencing gunshots, etc). Throughout the films, he is shown to be very clever and astute owing to his occupation as a private detective, able to solve various cases, quickly determine others' biological familiar relation through physical similarities, and formulate clever plans and disguises, with the only one who pose him a significant challenge being his nemesis James Moriarty and in lesser extent, Lord Henry Blackwood. As a talented actor, not only Holmes being able to put up a wide array of disguises, but also keeping his sadness and anger in check behind his emotionless facade to maintain his focus on tasks at hand.
As the determined private detective, Holmes always up for a challenge, even if it seems too hard for him. There are instances of him lost his way in his investigations (ex. facing the occult expert Blackwood who outsmarted him most of the time and even injured Watson in the first film), but not for long because his determination, coupled with others' supports, saw him regaining his resolve. Indeed, determination is the greatest asset of Robert Downey Jr.'s iteration of the character, often to make up the lack of strength his original incarnation had. Said determination also saw him willing himself to stay alive despite his injuries until receiving immediate medical treatments from Watson, resorted to act recklessly during his final confrontation with Moriarty, and even somehow survived his apparent death as revealed near the ending of the second film. Watson himself acknowledged this, as upon receiving the package containing breathing device of Mycroft's that Holmes had noticed and expressed a liking for prior to the summit in the middle of mourning Holmes' presumed passing, he quick to suspect that his best friend still alive and well albeit oblivious to the fact of the latter had discreetly made his way back home unknown to everybody.
- Genius-Level Intellect: Sherlock's primary weapon is his astounding genius-level intellect, far beyond the likes of people in his time. He is a capable tactician, deductor, polymath and strategist. His intellect enabled him to get the best of his nemesis, Professor Moriarty and expose his crimes by stealing his diary without Moriarty noticing and handing it to the police in London.
- Polymath: He is incredibly knowledgeable about various scientific concepts, chemical concepts and other academical prospects.
- Prediction: Holme's vast experience and advanced intelligence gives him an almost unique ability to run most accurate stimulations in his mind, about how a fight or scuffle will play out, what moves and weapons will be used or at precisely what time it will happen. Only Professor Moriarty can misdirect and counter this ability. He has done so with many fights throughout his life.
- Deduction: Due to him being extremely observant and cunning, he can easily find out how and what has actually happened, mostly by using logic. After performing the mystical ritual that the Temple of Four Orders use, he discovered the Logical System that Blackwood was actually using to stage "magical" murders. He even deduced that Sir Thomas was Blackwood's biological father via certain very minor genetic features which he could see in Sir Thomas's face as well as Blackwood's face. He could even deduct Moriarty's true personality via his handwriting.
- Strategist: His predictive ability allows him to set up traps based on most accurate predictions. He jammed up machine guns and set off trick grenades as well as timed the moment to throw off Lady Watson to safety.
- Impersonation: Holmes also donned various disguises in order to spy on or obtain information from different suspects. He demonstrated this when he visited his friend and colleague John Watson as a Doctor in a Hospital after John was injured from a brief confrontation with Lord Blackwood. He also demonstrated how quickly he can alter disguises by following Professor Moriarty across Paris in various different disguises, ranging from the restaurant waiter, the lobby's bell boy and the park sweeper. His disguises are so great that even Professor Moriarty did not see him attending his own lecture in various pseudonyms and disguises.
- Researching: He has shown to manipulate the pattern of flying insects with violin music. He also developed various chemical agents such as a powerful adrenaline booster which could revive a man at death's door as well as a a paralytic which can cause a person to fake their deaths. He often tests his chemical experiments on Gladstone, Watson's dog. He was even researching as to how he can suppress the sound of a gunshot without any luck so far.
- Showmanship: Holmes was able to keep an entire gang of criminals in a jailhouse entertained until his release as well as earned the respect of various notorious criminals and thugs. He even used this to supposedly fake his death.
- Heightened Senses: His natural senses are extremely accurate as he is able to smell even the tiniest of unusual details and sense the presence of lurkers, which often results in his paranoia. He uses his heightened awareness to detect ever the faintest of clues so as to help his deductive abilities. He even deduced that Sir Thomas was Blackwood's biological father via certain very minor genetic features which he could see in Sir Thomas's face as well as Blackwood's face.
- Indomitable Willpower: Holmes has a remarkable tolerance for physical trauma, as even a crane hook jabbed in his shoulder to physically torture him and at the same time flee the Munitions Factory and its armed soldiers onto an oncoming train, before starting to pass out shows his endurance. However, before he could actually die, Watson injected him with a powerful adrenaline shot to revive him. He was even not afraid to try out the Temple of Four Order's magical ritual to see the Blackwood's ultimate goal.
- Martial Artist: He has always shown his expertise in many forms of martial arts and boxing abilities. He himself using the Barjitsu style of fighting, using it to defeat larger and stronger opponents or multiple opponents. His style also involves psychological warfare, as he uses taunts and distractions such as the environment to gain the upper hand if he is outnumbered or outmatched.