Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the room...until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large – Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris – and not only is he Holmes' intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may give him an advantage over the renowned detective.
Around the globe, headlines break the news: a scandal takes down an Indian cotton tycoon; a Chinese opium trader dies of an apparent overdose; bombings in Strasbourg and Vienna; the death of an American steel magnate... No one sees the connective thread between these seemingly random events - no one, that is, except the great Sherlock Holmes, who has discerned a deliberate web of death and destruction. At its center sits a singularly sinister spider: Moriarty.
Holmes' investigation into Moriarty's plot becomes more dangerous as it leads him and Watson out of London to France, Germany and finally Switzerland. But the cunning Moriarty is always one step ahead, and moving perilously close to completing his ominous plan. If he succeeds, it will not only bring him immense wealth and power but alter the course of history.
Robert Downey Jr. came up with the idea for the disguise as a cross-dresser, which was originally a priest.
The text of the note that Holmes leaves Watson on the packing crate reads: "Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient come all the same". This quote is taken directly from Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Adventure of the Creeping Man.
FAMOUS QUOTES
Dr. John Watson: Oh, how I've missed you, Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes: Have you? I've barely noticed your absence.
Sherlock Holmes: [referring to Moriarty] If we can stop him, we shall prevent the collapse of Western civilization... No pressure.
Dr. John Watson: What are we doing down here?
Sherlock Holmes: *We* are waiting. *I* am smoking.
Madam Simza Heron: What do you see?
Sherlock Holmes: Everything. That is my curse.
