Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Continuity mistake: When Sherlock is fighting the Russian, he falls on a cart filled with seeds, which cover his right eye. When the angle changes, a frame later, the eye is clean.

Sacha

Revealing mistake: When the movie starts, there's an aerial view of London's rooftops. The smoke coming out of the very first chimney doesn't move, revealing it's a painting.

Sacha

Factual error: In the scene where Renè was dying, Dr. Watson examines the dying man and the poisonous arrow that hit him, and concludes that the venom used was curare. Curare is a paralysing poison that causes the body to relax to the degree that respiratory muscles stop contracting and the victim dies of asphyxiation. René on the other hand perished in strong cramps and foaming of his mouth.

Continuity mistake: In the sequence where Holmes and Watson escape Meinhardt's arms and munitions factory with the help of the gypsies, Watson is clipped by a bullet in the slo-mo sequence at the bottom of his rib-cage on the right side. Later, in the train, he is seen stitching his wound on the left side.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows mistake picture

Factual error: When Watson is pinned down by Moran at the arms factory in Germany, he hides behind a large artillery piece. He looks around and sees a pair of hearing protection. They appear to be modern hearing protection ear muffs, wrapped with cloth to make them look period. They have plastic clips to detach the ear cups from the metal band, which gives them away as being modern. They appear to be Peltor style hearing protection.

Matdan97

Audio problem: In the beginning when Holmes "shoots" the dog, Gladstone, with a dart and Watson says "What have you done to Gladstone now?", look closely and Watson's mouth doesn't move.

Continuity mistake: Sherlock looks at the ring of a murdered man, who was killed in a blast along with about a dozen other men in Paris, and the ring was plain. But later, the ring is shown again, and this time it has the letter M on it, a large letter, and it is very ornate - nothing like the other ring.

kh1616

Revealing mistake: During the shootout at the German arms factory, one guard is firing an M1888 Mauser rifle at Holmes, Watson, etc. However, when he fires it, the bolt handle is up, but we still see a muzzle flash from the rifle. This would indicate the muzzle flash to be computer generated and not a blank from the rifle.

Matdan97

Factual error: The map shown in the factory scene uses the post WWI Western boarders of Germany, when it should have included northern Sleswik (today in Denmark) as well as Alsace Lorraine (today in France). (01:18:30)

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Watson goes to the telegraph office and finds it is locked, he kicks the door in, visibly damaging the frame. But once he comes out the frame is fixed and the door is lockable.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: When Watson is leaving the telegraph office the door frame is still visibly broken, but apparently not enough to stop the door from closing and latching.

jimba

Continuity mistake: When Sherlock Holmes has been taken into the alley by Irene and is confronted by her escorts, in one shot the braid of the wig worn by Holmes is down his back and in the next shot it is over his shoulder, in the front. (00:02:45 - 00:03:30)

galarky

Mycroft Holmes: Good evening, Mrs Watson. I'm the other Holmes.
Mary Watson: You mean there's *two* of you? Marvelous!

More quotes from Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Trivia: The final chess match between Moriarty and Holmes is based loosely on a famous chess match between chess masters Bent Larsen and Tigran Petrosian. The match involved the sacrifice of a queen and a surprise checkmate, thus mirroring Holmes' apparent sacrifice of himself to stop Moriarty.

More trivia for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Question: Why would Meinhard need to have been shot if the bomb would have taken everyone in the room out? The only reason I can think of is that Moriarty has considered the possibility of Meinhard surviving and has thus ordered Moran to shoot Meinhard to give him no chance of surviving whatsoever. Can anyone kindly confirm this or give a better explanation?

Answer: That sounds entirely right. Bombs are potentially unreliable; it's possible, albeit unlikely, that Meinhard could have survived the blast, so by getting Moran to shoot him dead first, then covering up the true cause of death (and thus who the real target was) using the bomb, it ensures that the job gets done.

Tailkinker

More questions & answers from Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

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