Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
- Before Robert Downey Jr. was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a hidden easter egg referencing Guy Ritchie's previous film in the background of the opening scene.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a 2011 British-American action mystery film directed by Guy Ritchie, the sequel to his 2009 Sherlock Holmes. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law return as Holmes and Watson, this time investigating a series of seemingly unconnected bombings and political assassinations across Europe that Holmes traces to Professor James Moriarty, played by Jared Harris, the brilliant criminal mastermind who represents Holmes's intellectual equal and greatest adversary. As Holmes and Watson pursue Moriarty from London to Paris to a Swiss arms factory, accompanied by a Romani fortune teller played by Noomi Rapace, they uncover a plot to profit from an engineered world war.
Jared Harris's portrayal of Moriarty brought a cold, professorial menace that provided the franchise's most formidable villain β his scenes with Downey's Holmes crackled with intellectual rivalry and barely concealed threat. Guy Ritchie's signature visual style was deployed even more aggressively, with the slow-motion "Holmes Vision" combat analysis becoming an elaborate action choreography tool. The forest chase sequence, rendered partially in slow motion with artillery shells shredding trees around the fleeing protagonists, was the film's most visually ambitious set piece.
The climactic confrontation at Reichenbach Falls honored Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous story with genuine dramatic weight. A Game of Shadows earned $545 million worldwide.
