Line #35 Film/YoungSherlockHolmes


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7	->''"The following story is original and is not specifically based on the exploits of Sherlock Holmes as described in the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."''
8	-->-- '''Opening Disclaimer'''
9
10	A 1985 mystery/adventure film directed by Creator/BarryLevinson, Executive produced by Creator/StevenSpielberg, produced by among others Creator/HenryWinkler (yes, [[Series/HappyDays that one]].) and written by Creator/ChrisColumbus, and based on the classic characters of Sir Creator/ArthurConanDoyle. An admittedly non-canonical WhatIf story, it depicts a young Literature/SherlockHolmes and John Watson meeting and solving a mystery together at a boarding school.
11
12	It was the first film produced by Creator/AmblinEntertainment to receive a PG-13 rating, and notable for including the first fully computer-generated character: a knight composed of elements from a stained glass window. The effect was created by Creator/{{Lucasfilm}}'s new computer graphics division headed by a then-up-and-coming Creator/JohnLasseter, which would later become Creator/{{Pixar}}. The SFX earned the film an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination, but was beaten by ''Film/{{Cocoon}}''.
13
14	No connection to the ''Literature/YoungSherlockHolmes'' novels.
15
16	----
17	!!''Young Sherlock Holmes'' provides examples of:
18
19	* AbandonedWarehouse: The pyramid used by the Rame-tep cult is built into the floor of a deserted warehouse.
20	* ActionPrologue: The pre-title sequence involves [[spoiler:Mrs. Dribb]] drugging Bentley Bobster by shooting him with a dart tipped with a hallucinogenic substance; this first causes Bobster to see his dinner as alive, and later believe that his room is set on fire, causing him to throw himself out of his window to "escape".
21	* AdaptationalFriendship: With a WeUsedToBeFriends slant as well, Holmes is initially good friends with the school's fencing instructor Rathe, until the reveal [[spoiler:that "[[FalseFriend Rathe]]" is actually Ehtar, a vengeful cultist who then when defeated by Holmes takes on the identity of his [[ArchEnemy Archenemy]] "Moriarty"]] in the SequelHook.
22	* AllThereInTheStinger: TheStinger at the end shows [[spoiler:Rathe (a.k.a. Eh-Tar) signing into a hotel in Switzerland. He signs the register as ''Moriarty'']].
23	* AlreadyMetEveryone: In this story, Holmes meets Watson, Moriarty and Lestrade while still at school.
24	* ArcWords: Rathe to Holmes: “Don’t let your emotions get the better of you.”
25	* BaitAndSwitch: During the credits, the viewer assumes it's Sherlock's carriage being driven through the snow. [[spoiler:It's Moriarty's.]]
26	* BaldOfEvil: The {{Mooks}}, except for a thin ponytail dyed turquoise.
27	* BestServedCold: Holmes gets his revenge on Dudley (his rival who framed Holmes for cheating) by slipping an unknown chemical into his drink, causing him to resemble an albino for the next several months.
28	* BigBad: [[spoiler:Professor Rathe, real name Eh-Tar, is the mastermind behind the various hallucination-induced deaths occurring throughout the film. After surviving falling into freezing water, he renames himself Professor Moriarty and plagues Holmes for years to come.]]
29	* BigDamnHeroes: Lestrade saves Holmes and Watson from [[spoiler:a hallucinating Cragwitch]].
30	* BigEater: Watson; he has a noticeable sweet tooth (which manifests in his physical appearance and his drug-induced hallucination) and he attempts to buy soup at a bar before Holmes attempts to ask the bartender for information.
31	* BittersweetEnding: The two heroes win the day, but [[spoiler: Elizabeth dies and Sherlock is transferred to another school since he's still expelled, separating John from his best friend.]] However, John realizes that he has outgrown his childhood, [[HeterosexualLifePartners he'll meet Sherlock again]] and [[AndTheAdventureContinues this is only the first of many adventures with him]].
32	-->'''Watson:''' As I watched Holmes settle into his seat, a sudden feeling came over me - that I would most certainly be seeing him again. So ended my first adventure with Mister Sherlock Holmes. As I watched his carriage disappear into the distance, I realised that I had forgotten to thank him. He had taken a weak, frightened boy and made him into a courageous, strong man. My heart soared. I was filled with confidence. I was ready for whatever mystery or danger lay ahead. I was ready to take on the greatest and most exciting adventure of them all, and I knew it was bound to involve Sherlock Holmes.
33	* BlatantLies: "Sherlock Holmes, jealous? My dear, that word does not enter my vocabulary."
34	* BlowGun: An assassin uses a blowgun to shoot darts [[spoiler: tipped with a hallucinogenic drug.]]
35	* BoardingSchool: Where Holmes and Watson meet here.
36	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: When Holmes and Watson go to the Egyptian pub, the bartender asks what he can get them: drink, food or women.
37	* BreakTheCutie: Played straight with Holmes, as he experiences expulsion from his school due to a FrameUp, the death of one mentor, the murderous intentions of another, and [[spoiler: the death of the girl he loved.]]
38	* BuriedAlive: After being shot with the hallucinogenic dart, Elizabeth has a hallucination where she is lying in a open grave and her uncle starts filling it in; shoveling the dirt on top of her.
39	* CanonDiscontinuity: This movie is NOT a part of the canon, and the movie makers say so.
40	* CanonCharacterAllAlong: In TheStinger at the end, the BigBad [[spoiler:Rathe]] is revealed not to have died in his fight with Holmes. He checks into an inn by signing his name as [[spoiler:"Moriarty", showing that he will become Holmes' nemesis in the years to come.]]
41	* CastingGag: Creator/NigelStock (Professor Waxflatter) previously played Dr. Watson in two Sherlock Holmes TV shows in the 1960s, opposite Douglas Wilmer and later Creator/PeterCushing as Sherlock Holmes.
42	* CelibateHero: Not in the movie itself, but provides an explanation for why Sherlock would be one in his adult life: his teenage girlfriend was killed by an enemy on his first case, and he doesn't want to go through that again.
43	* ChekhovsGun: Professor Waxflatter's flying machine. We're shown several unsuccessful attempts to make it work early in the movie as some sort of RunningGag that stops halfway through the film. Then [[spoiler: Holmes uses it to gain up on Ehtar as he flees with Elizabeth]].
44	* CollapsingLair: The pyramid at the climax; Holmes rigs the chandelier to the support beams and Watson brings the chandelier down, causing multiple support beams to collapse and setting the pyramid on fire.
45	* ComingInHot: Holmes doesn't know how to land Waxflatter's flying machine.
46	* CrystallineCreature: After being hit by a hallucinogen-inducing dart, the cardinal sees the glass motif of a knight coming to life and walking forward to strike him down.
47	* DeadpanSnarker: Although he’s less dispassionate than his future self, Holmes is still aloof and cerebral which is reflected in his dry wit, which he retains throughout his life.
48	* {{Determinator}}: Despite getting drugged by [[spoiler: Mrs. Dribb]], Cragwitch manages to fight the hallucinations off long enough to tell Holmes and Watson the whole story before succumbing and trying to strangle Holmes.
49	* DiedInYourArmsTonight: Holmes holds [[spoiler:Elizabeth]] in his arms as she expires after TakingTheBullet Eh-Tar intended for him.
50	* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Rathe]] falls into a frozen river. He survives to become [[spoiler:Moriarty]].
51	* DontThinkFeel: Inverted during the climax. After [[spoiler:Rathe has captured Elizabeth and is going to drown her in hot wax]], Holmes and Watson start panicking about what to do, and they only get anywhere once they start taking things slower and observing their surroundings. In another inversion, Rathe also frequently chastises Holmes for using emotion rather than thinking things through.
52	* DoomedByCanon: [[spoiler:Elizabeth is not in the original ''Sherlock Holmes'' stories, so ''something'' has got to happen to her by the end of the film.]]
53	* TheDreaded: The cult of Rame-tep; when Holmes attempts to ask about one of their [[BlowGun Blow Guns]], the man he asks starts screaming the cult's name, causing everyone else in the bar to draw weapons on Holmes and Watson.
54	* DyingClue: After stabbing himself, Waxflatter tells Holmes the name of the BigBad: Eh-tar.
55	* EveryoneIsArmed: When Holmes and Watson show a BlowGun to the proprietor of the Lower Nile Tavern, he starts screaming "Rame-Temp!" Cue everyone else in the bar drawing weapons on Holmes and Watson.
56	* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: Holmes and Watson go to school together. For more, see TheStinger.
57	* Expy: [[spoiler:Professor Rathe, a.k.a. Eh Tar, has more than a few things in common with Ra's al-Ghul, being a mentor to the hero who becomes his nemesis and a master swordsman who leads a sect of assassins from the Far East. Heck, even their names are similar.]]
58	* TheEyesHaveIt: The scene where the knight in the stained-glass window leaps down to do combat with the poor priest. Notable because it is specifically later revealed, like other deaths in the film, to be caused by [[spoiler: a hallucinogenic drug]]. What the priest saw was in fact all in his mind, but since it made him flee the church and run under the wheels of a moving carriage, he still ended up just as dead.
59	* {{Fainting}}: Elizabeth sleeps off the effects of the venom in her hammock whilst Holmes and Watson spitball the case.
60	* {{Fanservice}}: The first shot of the Arab-Egyptian bar is of the belly dancer's abdomen.
61	* FascinatingEyebrow: [[spoiler:Moriarty]] gives one to the viewer during TheStinger.
62	* FireBreathingWeapon: Bentley Bobster, the first victim of the FrightDeathTrap, hallucinates that the gas lights in his room have come alive and are shooting fireballs at him.
63	* {{Flanderization}}: This film does use the Flanderized version of Watson who's overweight and rather clueless, but it's somewhat {{justified\|Trope}} by being Watson as a ''schoolboy'', and by the climax, does prove to have a crafty side when [[spoiler: he rescues Holmes and Elizabeth at once]]. Presumably he's got years (and a stint in the military) yet to grow into the more fit and savvy Watson the original was. [[spoiler:And in the end, Watson narrates that [[ComingOfAgeStory this first adventure with Holmes IS part of what helped him go from a weak, easily frightened boy to a man]].]]
64	* ForceFeeding: The sequence where John Watson hallucinates that his legs are bound with sausages and that pastries are trying to force him to eat them. On Website/YouTube [[https://youtu.be/7iBFIlHDZx0 here.]]
65	* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:Elizabeth’s death is foreshadowed twice. When she, Holmes and John are in the statue in the temple, she’s looking out through one eye alone, while John and Holmes are looking out through the other, symbolising how the two of them are going to stay together but be parted from Elizabeth. When they hallucinate, her hallucination is falling into a grave.]]
66	* FrameUp: Holmes' rival Dudley forges Holmes' writing and frames him for cheating. As a result, Holmes is expelled.
67	* FreudianExcuse: For both Holmes' detective career (see TroubledBackstoryFlashback) and being a bachelor ([[spoiler:his first love dies]]).
68	* FrightDeathTrap: The "Run to Your Doom" variety is used frequently. Several elder gentlemen [[spoiler:who pissed off the wrong Egyptian cult as younger men]] are drugged with blow-darts, causing them to see terrifying hallucinations and run into traffic, leap out 3rd story windows, etc.
69	* GilliganCut: While being told about Professor Waxflatter, Watson wonders why he is considered a lunatic. Cue Waxflatter trying to fly -- again.
70	* GulliverTieDown: In Watson's hallucination, he's tripped and bound by a string of sausages, allowing a hoard of stop-motion AnthropomorphicFood pastries to force-feed one another to him.
71	* HairstyleMalfunction: [[spoiler:Mrs Dribb]] is exposed as a member of the Egyptian cult when Elizabeth's dog Uncus bites her wig and pulls it off; exposing her bald head.
72	* HeadturningBeauty: Elizabeth is very beautiful and Holmes admires her from afar as she walks outside in the snow.
73	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Holmes kills [[spoiler: Mrs. Dribb]] by blowing one of the thorns from her blow gun into her mouth. This is not only painful, but likely causes her to experience the violent hallucinations; either way she [[SelfImmolation sets herself on fire]].
74	* HooksAndCrooks: After losing his sword during his final fight against Holmes on the docks, Eh-Tar grabs a bale hook and attacks Holmes with it: managing to disarm him and nearly kill him with it.
75	* HumanSacrifice: The cult of Rame-tep make mummies by wrapping up young girls, then coating them in hot wax. [[spoiler: Elizabeth narrowly avoids this fate.]]
76	* HypnotiseTheCaptive: Eh Tar hypnotises Elizabeth with his ring and [[WeakWilled she remains in her mesmerised trance]] [[HypnoFool until the film’s climax]] as the Rame-Tep attempt to sacrifice her.
77	* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: After Chester Cragwitch is affected by a hallucinogenic drug that causes violent and self-destructive actions, Holmes tries to talk him down by reminding him of his name and that he's a banker. It just works long enough for Cragwitch to tell the entire story before he tries to strangle Holmes, mistaking him for Eh-tar.
78	* InspectorLestrade: The TropeNamer shows up, though since its a prequel he's only a Detective-Sergeant. Lestrade is fairly amiable to Holmes and is said to have lent him books on criminology, although he's annoyed by Holmes' attempts to bring random cases to his attention and brushes him off until he get pricked by one of the hallucinogenic darts. At the end of the film, he's promoted to Inspector after getting the credit for the Cult's defeat.
79	* InTheHood: The killer conceals their identity by wearing a large hooded cloak.
80	* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Two famous items associated with Holmes are featured here: the deerstalker cap and the curved pipe. Both are treated as ridiculous in-universe, particularly the pipe, which Watson has to buy so Holmes could get information. Holmes thinks the pipe in particular is ridiculous, while he inherits the cap from Waxflatter. [[spoiler: At the end of the film he takes Rathe's Inverness coat as a trophy completing his iconic look.]]
81	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: TheStinger reveals that Rathe did not meet his KarmicDeath and survived to live on as Moriarty. As a result it would take until "The Final Problem" for him to truly get his just desserts for killing innocents such as Elizabeth.]]
82	* KickTheDog: Or at least Banish the Dog. [[spoiler:Rathe and Dribb declare their intention to send Uncus to the pound, foreshadowing their true evil nature]].
83	* KidDetective: The movie speculates on what might have happened if Holmes and Watson had first encountered each other as schoolboys rather than as adults as in canon. A certain amount of schoolboy detective work is unavoidable.
84	* LivingDrawing: A variation in the church scene, where it's the stained glass drawing of a knight which literally leaps out of its frame, [[spoiler: although that was merely part of a hallucination]].
85	* TheLostLenore: It's [[spoiler: Elizabeth for Holmes.]]
86	* MadeOfIron: In the climax, [[spoiler: Rathe. He is smashed in the head by debris, lands in hot wax, has his head covering set on fire, is thrown off a moving carriage ''and'' sinks in icy water. The stinger reveals he not only survives that, but will plague Holmes in years to come as Professor Moriarty]].
87	* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Professor Waxflatter is more eccentric than mad, but his daughter Elizabeth is quite beautiful.
88	* MassOhCrap: When Holmes and Watson show a BlowGun to the proprietor of an Arab-Egyptian bar, he starts screaming "Rame-Temp!" Cue everyone else in the bar drawing weapons on Holmes and Watson.
89	* TheMourningAfter: In the denouement, [[spoiler: Sherlock after Elizabeth dies, vowing he will never love again]].
90	* MummyWrap: The evil cult featured in the movie does this as part of a sacrificial rite to [[spoiler: replace five mummified Egyptian princesses, who along with the treasures of their tomb were looted by the party of men who are now being picked off one by one]].
91	* MushroomSamba: The peculiar way the victims are killed -- each is hit with a blow dart dipped in drugs, and the resultant hallucinations drive them to their deaths as they try to flee them. Also happens to [[spoiler: Holmes, Watson, Elizabeth and (offscreen) Lestrade]].
92	* MythologyGag: Plenty of them. For instance, there's an in-passing reference to Mycroft Holmes when Sherlock is expelled and boarding the coach for home (only for Waxflatter's death to interrupt him) -- he mentions that his brother will be informed of what's happened.
93	* TheNameIsBondJamesBond: "Holmes. Sherlock Holmes."
94	* NeverBeHurtAgain: Holmes at the conclusion, still mourning the death of [[spoiler:Elizabeth]].
95	* NoodleIncident: We never find out [[spoiler:what hallucinations Lestrade had after pricking his finger on one of the thorns. All he tells Holmes is that he nearly hanged himself]].
96	* OneGenderSchool: Brompton Academy is an all-boys school. Elizabeth is not an actual student. She just lives on campus because she's the niece of Professor Waxflatter.
97	* OopNorth: Where Watson's from, as Holmes deduces from his shoes; Holmes has only encountered that type of shoe in the north of England.
98	* OriginsEpisode: The film presents an alternate, non-canon take on the formative years of Holmes and Watson. As alternate take on their origins, it also provides the origin of [[spoiler:Professor Moriarty.]]
99	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Cragwitch mentions that [[spoiler:Eh Tar and his sister were living with their grandfather while their parents were killed.]]
100	* PistolWhipping: Lestrade knocks out a drugged Chester Cragwitch to prevent him from strangling Holmes by hitting him over the back of the head with his pistol.
101	* PoliceAreUseless: Apparently, no one notices a large crowd of bald people with ponytails, wearing robes, and carrying swords that are chasing three teenagers!
102	* RaisedHandOfSurvival: In Elizabeth's hallucination, hands rise up out of the ground in the cemetery, grab her and drag her down into a grave.
103	* RasputinianDeath: [[spoiler:Mrs. Dribb has one of these, in keeping with her general ChewToy status. See WomanOnFire below.]]
104	* RedEyesTakeWarning: When the gargoyle in the shop starts to animate, its eyes glow red.
105	* TheRival: Dudley to Holmes, as both repeatedly try to outsmart each other and vie for Elizabeth's affections.
106	* RunningGag: Watson's guesses about the color of a bear from a house with an all-southern view. [[spoiler: It's white: a polar bear!]]
107	* ScreamingWoman: Elizabeth screams as she hallucinates being buried alive but she’s absolutely put to shame by [[spoiler:Mrs. Dribb]] who screams in agony [[MinorInjuryOverreaction after being bit on the leg by Uncus]] and after having her own poison dart blown into her brain, when [[ArtisticLicenseBiology she shouldn’t even be able to feel it and should have actually died instantly]].
108	* SdrawkcabAlias: The villain [[spoiler:Eh Tar]] uses the alias of [[spoiler:Professor Rathe]] for his cover job at Brompton Academy. Watson even spells this out towards the end of the film as a "very important clue."
109	* SequelHook: TheStinger reveals that one of the characters will eventually become [[spoiler:Professor Moriarty]]. Shame that there was no sequel (beyond the books, of course)...
110	* SerialKiller: It turns out that [[spoiler: there are ''two'', and connected ones at that -- Mrs. Dribb is murdering several men involved in the desecration of a religious site and the subsequent destruction of her home village by the British Army when its residents protested, while her brother Rathe is murdering young girls as replacements for five sacred mummies that were damaged in the desecration]].
111	* SherlockScan: A school-aged Watson transfers to a new boarding school and meets Holmes for the first time. Holmes deduces Watson's name, home county, father's occupation, and Watson's love of writing and pastries. He only gets Watson's name wrong (he guesses James instead of John) because he only saw "J. Watson" on Watson's luggage and decided to go with a common name starting with J (John would have been his second guess). The mistake with the name is likely a reference to ''The Man with the Twisted Lip'', in which Watson's wife refers to him as James, a mistake that has confounded Holmes scholars for decades.
112	* SiblingTeam: [[spoiler: Rathe/Eh Tar and Mrs. Dribb]] are a villainous example.
113	* SpeechImpediment: Brompton Academy's chemistry professor has a noticeable stutter.
114	* SpinoffBabies: This movie is a pastiche supposedly telling the early life of Holmes and Watson when they first met as teens -- and apparently before Holmes figured out how to solve crimes by logical deduction. (Unlike most examples, it's actually quite good.)
115	* TheStinger: The end credits are played over a sleigh going through a snow-covered forest. As the credits end, someone gets out of the sleigh and checks into the hotel. We see him signing in under the name Moriarty. As the camera pans up, Moriarty is revealed to be [[spoiler:Ehtar/Rathe, the villain, who survived the fall into the river]].
116	* SquishTheCheeks / VillainousFaceHold: [[spoiler:Mrs. Dribb]] restrains Elizabeth this way.
117	* SwordCane: [[spoiler: Eh Tar/Rathe carries one]], which he uses during the climax against Holmes.
118	* TakingTheBullet: Poor, ''poor'' [[spoiler:Elizabeth]]!
119	* ThoseMagnificentFlyingMachines: In this case it's a pedal-powered one that Professor Waxflatter attempts to use to fly. [[ChekhovsGun Holmes uses it later in the film to reach the other side of London]].
120	* TooDumbToLive: No Holmes, it isn't smart to shout "Stop! She's alive!" in the middle of a HumanSacrifice ritual.
121	* TragicKeepsake: Waxflatter's hat for Holmes.
122	* TroubledBackstoryFlashback: Holmes' drugged hallucination starts out as one of these, with his father yelling at him while his mother weeps in the background. It's implied that Sherlock's snooping uncovered Holmes Sr.'s affair or other transgression, breaking his mother's heart and earning his father's wrath.
123	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:Waxflatter and his friends set out to build a hotel in Egypt, only to set off a series of events that destroyed Eh Tar's village and killed his parents. It gets all but one of them killed.]]
124	* VillainOpeningScene: The pre-title sequence involves [[spoiler: Mrs. Dribb]] drugging Bentley Bobster by shooting him with a dart tipped with a hallucinogenic substance; this first causes Bobster to see his dinner as alive, and later believe that his room is set on fire, causing him to throw himself out of his window to "escape".
125	* WeakWilled: Despite her strong, independent personality, Elizabeth has a tendency to fall very quickly and very easily into a trance, succumbing to the hallucinogen before Holmes and Watson and taking longer to recover from it, in addition to being a HypnoFool.
126	* WhamLine: Right after the WhamShot: [[spoiler: '''Rathe:''' "So my dear, you've discovered our little secret."]] Elizabeth can only stare in shock.
127	* WhamShot: [[spoiler: Bald Mrs. Dribb]], revealing them as one of the cultists.
128	* WhatBeautifulEyes: Elizabeth has the most gorgeous, vivid green eyes.
129	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:Cragwitch's fate]] is unknown after being clubbed unconscious by Lestrade.
130	* WhatIf: The movie begins with a disclaimer explaining that it's a "What If" story, and the end credits similarly start with an acknowledgement that it wouldn't fit in with the official Holmes canon.
131	* WomanOnFire: Holmes kills [[spoiler: Mrs. Dribb]] by blowing one of the thorns from her blow gun into her mouth. This is not only painful, but likely causes her to experience the violent hallucinations; either way she [[SelfImmolation sets herself on fire]].
132	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler: Eh Tar/Rathe and his sister Mrs. Dribb]] are mostly avenging a massacre perpetrated on their parents and childhood village.
133	* WouldHurtAChild:
134	** [[spoiler: Eh Tar/Rathe]] is perfectly willing to douse young girls in hot wax in a HumanSacrifice ritual.
135	** The bartender of the Egyptian pub (as well as most of the patrons) almost kill Holmes and Watson when they start asking too many questions about the Rame Tep.
136	* YankTheDogsChain: Holmes and Watson have foiled [[spoiler: Eh Tar/Rathe's plans]] by [[spoiler: keeping Cragwitch alive, saving Elizabeth and destroying the cult's temple. Now the trio is walking back to school. Then Rathe appears and shoots Elizabeth.]]
137	* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler:Eh Tar and his sister Mrs. Dribb are motivated by the death of their parents in a raid by the British army.]]

Context Film / YoungSherlockHolmes