Sherlock Holmes

Question: What is the song when ambassador Standish is burning?

Question: Just before Sherlock attacks somebody, he determines what areas to strike to incapacitate someone and determine how long it would take someone to recover from both physical and psychological trauma. Granted that he could figure out a person's physical recovery but, could he actually figure out a person's pyshological recovery? He noted that it would take six months if I remember for a guy to recover psychologically but, to me, Sherlock is just taking a wild guess. Especially, if the guy recovered in half the time.

Answer: I believe that particular line was him making a joke to himself about the man's pride.

Quantom X

Question: Near the beginning, Holmes tells Watson not to shoot Lord Blackwood because there is a piece of glass between Holmes and Watson, and Lord Blackwood. But Holmes breaks the glass easily. So why did Holmes tell Watson not to shoot?

Answer: Sherlock Holmes does not tell Watson not to shoot (there is no such dialogue). Holmes and Watson incapacitate Blackwood's henchmen, and Watson is behind Blackwood, holding him at gunpoint with the revolver in his left hand. Blackwood then provokes Watson, who lunges forward, about to strike with the baton in his right hand. Holmes rushes forward and stops Watson just before he makes a fatal mistake. If Watson had taken one more step, the nearly invisible glass spike in Blackwood's hands would have impaled Watson through his eye and into his brain.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Even though I have seen the movie five times, I still don't understand Holmes when he is explaining how Lord Blackwood survived the hanging, without any pulse. Could someone explain it to me?

IreneAdlerfan21

Chosen answer: Blackwood took a chemical toxin that slowed the body's functions down to a very low level, far enough that he would appear dead even to the trained examiner. Watson pronounced him dead, then his body was placed within the prepared tomb. At some point after that he returned to normal function as the toxin wore off.

Tailkinker

Answer: He survived the hanging because there was a fish hook near where the knot of the rope was that Blackwood was hung by.

Question: So does magic exist in this universe or not? We know Blackwood isn't using magic and is just a fraud, but other characters such as Standish act like magic exists; and then there's Holmes having those visions when he performs the ritual. Does magic exist in this world?

MrMovieBuff

Answer: No, there's nothing to indicate that magic actually exists. Characters may be superstitious and believe it exists... but as Holmes displays, it was all cheap parlor tricks. As for his "visions," it's shown throughout the movie that Sherlock is amazing at deduction and prediction, so I assume the visions are a result of that. To me, it seemed like he was doing the ritual more to put himself into the right "mindset" than to actually perform magic.

TedStixon

Answer: Those were not visions, he was calculating the best scenario to use to defeat his opponent. All the other times after examining clues he was recreating the events that best fit the situation.

Question: When Ambassador Standish fires his gun, causing himself to burst into flames, what happens to the bullet fired at Lord Blackwood from, what appears to be, roughly 20 feet away?

Answer: The gun was modified to where it would not fire a bullet. It remained in the barrel.

MasterOfAll

Question: Lord Blackwood dies through a set of circumstances that cause him to be hanged via chain. My question is this - was it merely coincidence that he ended up in the wrong place and the wrong time for the chain of events to kill him? Or did Holmes know it was going to happen that way it did? It seems a little too convenient to me, so I can't help but wonder if Holmes knew the crane would collapse as it did, setting off the chain of events. (Whether or not he knew if would kill Blackwood).

Answer: It was a coincidence.

MasterOfAll

Question: In the mistakes section it comments that Jude Law is wearing a hearing aid in one scene. Does anyone know anything about this? I couldn't find any reference to him having hearing loss online. Is it possible that it is actually just an earpiece?

Answer: Jude Law's hearing is fine, he was wearing the hearing piece so the director can tell him where to stand while they are filming.

Answer: Because when they are sitting in the prison yard side by side Jude law has an earpiece in his left ear, if this is supposedly for direction why don't they both have ear pieces in and not just Jude law or are you suggesting that Jude law requires more direction making him a lesser competent actor or is it just the fact that it IS a hearing aid.

Question: What's the name of the song playing in the background when Holmes and Watson fight with Dredger and the other two men in Reordan's flat? I looked everywhere, but I can't find it: it's not on the official soundtrack, either. Also, in the same scene, Watson starts off battling two men while Holmes takes Dredger, but later there is only one fighting with Watson. Where is he?

benjyrabbit

Chosen answer: Apparently the song is sort of a Hans Zimmer take on 'Johnnie Cope.' And Watson dispatches the first 'potato' by throwing his coat around the man's neck and beating him over the head with a large metal bowl.

rhettsmum

Question: Outside Madison and Haig, a gypsy corners our dynamic duo and tells Watson his future. I figured out that Holmes was setting Watson up when I saw her in the crowd at the start of the 'crowded alley' scene, moving quickly to get into position outside Madison and Haig. But how does Watson realise that Holmes has set him up? He never saw the gypsy at the start, and all Holmes says at the time is 'Doilies'. Am I just being really slow?

benjyrabbit

Chosen answer: Because she just happens to share Holmes' opinions, and also because of Holmes' extremely sarcastic reactions to her predictions.

Phixius

Question: I saw a trailer for the film in which the scene in the hotel (between Holmes and Irene Adler) appears to be different - she's wearing a short black and red outfit instead of the peach coloured one, and she physically knocks him out instead of drugging him (she first tries to use her hairclip as a weapon). Why was this changed, and is it on the DVD?

cherry_girl

Chosen answer: Oftentimes scenes that appear in a trailer don't appear in the final movie. The trailers are sometimes created months in advance of the release of the movie, and sometimes scenes are removed for pacing reasons or to reduce the overall runtime, or are only intended for the trailer. Occasionally those scenes might be put back into a movie on its DVD/Blu-ray release, or might be included in a 'deleted scenes' section, or often are simply omitted altogether.

GalahadFairlight

Question: So what tricks does Blackwood use to make the girl try to kill herself at the beginning? I don't get that part. Thanks.

Answer: While it's never stated explicitly, drugs and hypnotic suggestion are most likely.

Grumpy Scot

Question: How was Blackwood's plan to reclaim America back into British control supposed to have played out, as laid out to Standish? If they got control of the armed forces, would they have attempted an invasion of the United States?

Answer: After killing off England's entire Parliament, gaining control of the government and military, Blackwood would then wage war against the United States, believing the U.S. military was in a weakened and chaotic state following the Civil War. The details were sketchy, but if he actually did intend to reconquer the US, an army would have to invade it.

raywest

Question: Why did Blackthorn have Reordan killed? The man was an evil genius and would have been a huge help with Blackthorn's plans.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Blackthorn was an egomaniac, there was only room for one diabolical madman.

Question: Wouldn't Watson have noticed that Blackthorn's neck wasn't broken after he was 'hanged'?

Brian Katcher

Answer: There are two types of hanging - the long drop which is intended to break the neck causing a quick death, and a short drop which doesn't break the neck and causes slower death by asphyxiation. There is no reason to check for a broken neck, just whether the person is dead.

Answer: He didn't check the neck, he only checked the pulse.

lionhead

Continuity mistake: At the graveyard scene, when Holmes borrows Lestrade's pen you can see that he has unbuttoned cuffs, and a pair of cuffs underneath. When he takes off his hat and scratches his head in the very next frame, he has just bare skin under his unbuttoned cuffs.

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Trivia: In the scene with the French Giant all of the French lines they speak were originally in English. Director Guy Ritchie found out that the man actually spoke French as his first language and decided on the spot to change it to add to the mystery of the film.

More trivia for Sherlock Holmes

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