Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, also known simply as Sherlock Holmes, is a 2010 British-American Steampunk mystery film directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg and produced by independent American film studio The Asylum.
As they're looking into the downing of a treasure ship — supposedly by a massive squid — Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson get word that a dinosaur is running amok in London. Investigating, Holmes is soon on the trail of a criminal and scientific mastermind who seems to control monsters and creations that are beyond belief.
Tropes:
- Action Bomb: Miss Ivory is revealed to be one of Spring-Heeled Jack's creations and his lover, and she carries a bomb in her workings that will detonate when she reaches Buckingham Palace.
- Alliterative Name: Isadora Ivory.
- Audit Threat: When Holmes, Watson and Lestrade attempt to gain access to the rubber factory, the owner tells them to come back with a search warrant. Holmes says that one can be easily obtained, but adds that it might be more profitable to return with the labour commissioners: noting that unlike its neighbours, his factory has bars on the inside, not the outside, of its windows, indicating that he is more concerned with keeping someone in, rather than out, and deducing that his workforce must likely consists of illegal immigrants. The owner caves and agrees to tell them what they want to know.
- Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: After his mechanical dragon crashes, the Big Bad crawls out of the wreckage. Watson goes to help him, but the villain pulls a gun on him. He is about to fire and there is the sound of a shot, and the villain slumps forward; having been shot by Sherlock who has just landed by parachute behind him.
- Bound and Gagged: The Big Bad kidnaps Inspector Lestrade and is holding him gagged and chained to a massive throne in his castle hideout.
- Cain and Abel: The Big Bad is ultimately revealed to be Sherlock's older brother Thorpe.
- Canon Foreigner: In the original stories, Sherlock has a brother named Mycroft. In this movie, Mycroft is not mentioned and Sherlock is given a brother named Thorpe. Who is also the Big Bad.
- *Click* Hello: Watson is investigating the empty pump house when a revolver is leveled at the back of his head and the hammer cocked. However, when he turns around, it turns out to be a spooked Lestrade.
- Combat Tentacles: The Big Bad uses a Steampunk mechanical giant octopus to drag down a treasure ship with its tentacles so he can loot it to fund his Evil Scheme.
- Cool Airship: To chase after the giant mechanical Steampunk dragon the Big Bad is piloting to lay waste to London, Holmes commandeers another of Big Bad's flying machines: a one-man airship that is a cross between a hot air balloon and a rotorcraft. And armed with Gatling guns.
- Deadly Gas: When Holmes and Watson sneak into the Big Bad's castle, they get sealed in a small room that starts to fill with a deadly gas.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Sherlock's brother Thorpe keeps addressing Sherlock as "Robert". At the end of the film, Watson gets around to asking Holmes about this, and Holmes admits that his full name is 'Robert Sherlock Holmes':"...but who is going to remember a detective named 'Robert Holmes'?
- Evil Cripple: The Big Bad was paralyzed by a police bullet and uses an exoskeleton to move around.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The primary weapon on the Big Bad's draconic Steampunk flying machine is a flamethrower mounted in its mouth, with which he sets fire to large sections of London.
- Frame-Up: The Big Bad intends to frame Inspector Lestrade for assassinating Queen Victoria and destroying most of London.
- Framing Device: The film opens in December 1940, during the London Blitz, with an elderly John Watson telling his nurse about an "unrecorded case" he and Sherlock investigated in 1882.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Thorpe Holmes, a.k.a. Spring-Heeled Jack, constructs an exoskeleton to overcome his paralysis; a clockwork automaton henchwoman who is also his lover; an mechanical giant octopus; and an army of mechanical dinosaurs.
- Genius Cripple: The Big Bad is a Gadgeteer Genius who was paralyzed by a police bullet and uses an exoskeleton to move around.
- Giant Squid: The Big Bad uses a Steampunk mechanical giant octopus to drag down a treasure ship so he can loot it to fund his Evil Scheme.
- GPS Evidence: After the mechanical dinosaurs blow up the rubber factory, Holmes finds a pebble clinging to the owner's body which, because of its lack of singeing, had to have become attached to his clothes immediately before he was flung through the window. It is a type of rock found in only one place in Britain, which happens to be near Holmes' boyhood home. Given we later learn that the Big Bad is Sherlock's brother, it is entirely possible it was placed there deliberately for Sherlock to find.
- Heal It with Booze: While patching up Holmes' leg after it is gashed during the fight with the dinosaur in the copper factory, Watson pours brandy over the wound to clean it. Holmes winces and then chastises Watson for using such an excellent vintage for such a banal purpose.
- Horseback Heroism: After escaping from the Big Bad's hideout, Watson obtains a horse (
from somewhere) and seemingly gallops all the way to London to save Queen Victoria from an Action Bomb. - In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: Although this film bears almost no resemblance to anything Sir Arthur Conan Doyle actually wrote.
- Instant Sedation: When Watson attempts to tackle Miss Ivory, she injects him in the neck with something that causes him to instantly collapse.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: When Holmes and Watson infiltrate the Big Bad's base, they find what they assume is an empty suit of armour standing in the centre of the room. Not until Watson raps on it and it attacks him do they realise that this is the Big Bad's Steampunk exoskeleton and he is inside it.
- Pocket Protector: Holmes is saved from Miss Ivory's bullet by his tobacco case. This is a Call-Back to Thorpe's early comment that Sherlock's tobacco habit would be deleterious to his health.
- Ramming Always Works: When the Big Bad goes to destroy Watson for stopping his Action Bomb before it could reach Buckingham Palace, Holmes stops him by slamming his light one-man airship into the Big Bad's much larger, armoured mechanical dragon: smashing both flying machines to pieces.
- Robosexual: Miss Ivory is revealed to be a clockwork automaton built by Spring-Heeled Jack and also his lover.
- Robot Girl: Miss Ivory is revealed to be a clockwork automaton built by Spring-Heeled Jack and also his lover.
- Sexbot: Miss Ivory is revealed to be a clockwork automaton built by Spring-Heeled Jack and also his lover.
- Sherlock Can Read: Holmes walks into the mortuary just as Watson is starting an autopsy. He does a Sherlock Scan and then proceeds to tell Watson the deceased's occupation, general state of health and cause of death. He tells Watson that Mr. Dunlevy's autopsy will have to wait till tomorrow as they only have ten minutes to catch their train. When Watson asks how he knew the dead man's name, Holmes replies "It's written on his chart".
- Spring-Heeled Jack: Spring-Heeled Jack is the villain, presented as a Steampunk mechanical man. He is actually Holmes' estranged brother Thorpe.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: After being knocked unconscious by Miss Ivory's injection, Watson wakes up strapped to an operating table-like contraption in the Big Bad's laboratory.
