CITAZIONE
Sherlock Holmes (alternatively known in the United Kingdom as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes) is a 2010 direct-to-DVD detective film produced by The Asylum, directed by Rachel Lee Goldrenberg. The film is a mockbuster intended to capitalise upon the 2009 film of the same name directed by Guy Ritchie, and is the second film by The Asylum to be inspired by the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film was shot in Wales on a low budget.
The film details the "chronicle of [Holmes's] greatest accomplishment" in which famous detective Sherlock Holmes (Ben Syder, making his film debut) and his companion Dr. Watson (Gareth David Lloyd) investigate a string of unusual "monster" attacks before stumbling on Spring-Heeled Jack's plot to destroy London with the aid of his robotic dinosaurs.
The film begins during the Blitz in London in 1940 (World War Two). An elderly and very unwell Dr. John Watson (David Shackleton) states that these German air raids are not the first time he has seen London burn. He begins to tell his nurse the tale of his most complex adventure with Sherlock Holmes (Ben Syder), which he and Holmes vowed never to tell the public.
In 1882, a Royal Navy ship carrying gold sits silently on the English coast before it is destroyed by a gigantic octopus. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson (Gareth David Lloyd) are present at Watson's autopsy of a man, who the tobacco-addicted Holmes identifies as a fishmonger using his extraordinary observational skills. They are called to investigate the monster attack by Lestrade (William Huw), who tells Holmes he has recently contacted his brother, Thorpe (Dominic Keating). The only survivor of the monster attack, recovering in hospital, is thought to be insane; he describes great arms reaching out of the sea and dragging the ship to its destruction. Holmes, Watson and Lestrade travel to a cliff on the coast where the remains of the ship have washed up. Watson dangerously abseils down the cliff to find that the money in the ship was somehow stolen. In Whitechapel in the suburbs of London, a young man trying to get service from a prostitute is killed by a small Tyrannosaurus Rex.
When Holmes and Watson hear of the monsters, Watson dismisses the reports as "preposterous," believing it to be superstition. On a walk in the woods, Holmes and Watson begin to make conclusions, before the dinosaur appears and chases them. They escape and take shelter in a small workhouse where they encounter Lestrade who is investigating the dinosaur case. They agree to keep the dinosaur secret from Lestrade. In the house, a water pump providing water to a local fountain has been stolen, presumably by the dinosaur. In a T-Rex footprint, Holmes finds a burnt piece of rubber, which proves the dinosaur is artificial. Meanwhile, at home, Watson begins to fall in love with Miss Ivory, the niece of one of Watson's current patients, who curiously asks for some very strong medications.
Holmes and Watson track their suspect to a copper factory, only for Holmes to end up painfully injured by a falling chandelier. During the night, Watson treats the wounds, and in the morning they visit a factory, stalked by Lestrade, where tons of rubber has been given to an unknown buyer, presumably to build the dinosaur's skin. They convince the owner to give them answers when Holmes uses his talents to work out that illegal immigrants are working there. The dinosaur mutilates the warehouse owner and Lestrade goes missing while the warehouse is ultimately destroyed by fire. Holmes tracks down the dinosaur with a piece of stone buried in the man's remains, which Holmes identifies as coming from a small castle he and his brother often visited as children. There, they find that the octopus and dinosaur are synthetic robots, and they are attacked by "Spring-Heeled Jack," a mechanical genius wearing a copper, steam-powered cybernetic armour. He takes his mask off to reveal that he is Thorpe Holmes, Sherlock's brother, and Miss Ivory's "uncle" whom Watson was treating.
Thorpe reveals that he has created this very advanced technology in a chain of crimes; he created the octopus to steal money from the Naval ship, and he spent the money on building the T-Rex which would steal the copper wire and the water pump, which he then used, combined with his medical knowledge, to create his suit. The suit keeps him alive from a bullet wound in his spine, which he believes his police partner Lestrade gave to him on their final case together. He also reveals that Sherlock's full name is Robert Sherlock Holmes. Thorpe wants revenge on the whole of Britain and intends to destroy London. He would then force Lestrade to take the blame. Holmes tries to attack Thorpe, only to be shot and presumably killed by Miss Ivory.
Miss Ivory is revealed to also be one of Thorpe's robotic creations (and his lover), and Thorpe builds a bomb into her clockwork workings which will detonate when she reaches Buckingham Palace, home of Queen Victoria. As Spring-Heeled Jack, he intends to destroy the rest of London in his latest creation, a gigantic, fire-spitting mechanical dragon in which he pilots and keeps Lestrade prisoner. Holmes rescues Watson from imprisonment; the bullet Miss Ivory fired at him was stopped by the tobacco box in his pocket, to which he thinks is ironic because Thorpe said his tobacco addiction would be the death of him, as it was to their father. Watson is sent to stop Miss Ivory from assassinating the Queen, while Holmes pilots another one of Thorpe's inventions, a hot-air balloon driven by helicopter propellers and armed with the world's first machine guns, in an attempt to stop his brother.
Spring-Heeled Jack sets fire to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament with his dragon, while Holmes battles him. Watson manages to deactivate Miss Ivory a fraction of a second before she can blow up Buckingham Palace. Holmes and his brother crash-land in the garden of Buckingham Palace. Mortally wounded, Thorpe tries to shoot Watson, before he is shot and killed by Holmes, who survived the crash by the use of a parachute. Holmes reveals to Lestrade that he wasn't the one who shot Thorpe in the spine; the bullet came from a smaller gun belonging to the bank robbers Thorpe and Lestrade were battling at the time. Lestrade takes all the credit for saving the Queen, while Holmes and Watson vow never to speak of the events again, because of how it personally affected Holmes, and because he thinks that the world isn't ready. Holmes tells Watson that his birth name is Robert Sherlock Holmes, and he removed his first name because there is already a detective of the name Robert Holmes.
Back in 1940, Watson's nurse asks him if any of the tale is true, before Watson dies peacefully. She visits Watson and Sherlock Holmes's gravestones some time later, as the only person to ever know of their complex accomplishment, and turns to see Miss Ivory, having not changed a bit since 1882, visiting the grave of Thorpe Holmes.
