When Holmes and Watson are taken to Lord Blackwood's slaughter house, they both jump from the Lucy into the shallow water near shore and make their way to the building. In the very next scene, their clothes are dry.
When Holmes performs the magic ritual he cuts his fingers on a sharp knife to drip blood in middle of the circle. The next morning when talking to Watson and Irene, there is no sign of trauma to either of his thumbs.
When Holmes, Watson, and Irene are in the attic and Holmes is explaining the crime, Irene kneels to the ground to put a candle down to flatten out the map. In the next shot, she puts the candle on the map again.
In the laboratory that Holmes and Watson have broken into, Holmes picks up an apparatus made of copper with four long "sticks" protruding from the top. In the next shot/edit it now has five "sticks".
At the beginning, one establishing shot of London includes a fully-built Tower Bridge. Later, during the big fight scene, it is only half-built.
The date on the newspaper Holmes is holding after he was bailed from jail is Friday, November 19, 1891. November 19th was actually on a Thursday that year.
The scene in the House of Lords shows a very large chamber, with lots of people, many standing behind the Lord Speaker on the Floor of the House, talking to each other until Lord Coward, the Home Secretary calls for their attention. In reality, the Lords' Chamber is fairly small. Peers must sit on their respective benches; they are not allowed to stand on the Floor of the House. The Speaker calls the House to order, not individual peers. In fact, as a government minister, Lord Coward would normally address the Lords from the government dispatch box, which can be seen on the Table of the House. Incidentally, the Table itself is incorrectly placed in front of the Lord Speaker. It should have been placed further down, with the Law Lords sitting between the Lord Speaker and the Table.
A boat slips into the Thames and sinks stern first, with the bow in the air. The Thames is very shallow at that point.
In the attic scene Sherlock plays his violin to suggest flies respond to atonal clusters. He states "Voila! They fly in synchronized, counterclockwise, concentric circles, as though a regimented flock."
The first use of the term "counter-clockwise" was in 1888, 2 years after Tower Bridge. "Anti-clockwise" would've been the correct terminology and far more common in the UK even today.
The first use of the term "counter-clockwise" was in 1888, 2 years after Tower Bridge. "Anti-clockwise" would've been the correct terminology and far more common in the UK even today.
In the slaughter house, while trying to stop the band saw, Sherlock tells Watson "Turn off that valve".
Watson then starts to turn the valve counter clockwise.
Valves are always turned off/shut off, by turning them clockwise. Counter clockwise is always turning on/opening.
Valves are always turned off/shut off, by turning them clockwise. Counter clockwise is always turning on/opening.
Although Sherlock Holmes refers to the book of Revelation as "Revelations", it is noted by Watson in the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel "A Study in Scarlet" that Holmes' knowledge was limited to what he found relevant to his detective work, and in fact that he had very little knowledge of literature or philosophy.
In Reordan's laboratory, Holmes says he smells candy floss. Candy floss (a.k.a. cotton candy) wasn't available to the general public until 1904, but it was invented in the mid-18th century. Holmes was often employed by wealthy people, so he could've had it before.
In the slaughterhouse, the dead pigs are transported straight from the flaming to the band saw. When the band saw cuts them apart, the pigs are hollow, with no internal organs. However, near the end of the movie during Holmes' elaborate explanation of the conjuring tricks, he explains that the stomachs of the pigs were the experimental subjects of a cyanide poison. It is possible the pigs were cut open or the organs were dissolved in the experiments.
In the film, 221B Baker Street has 3 steps to the front door. Modern-day 221B Baker St. has a street-level entrance. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's day, the address was fictional, and thus has no "real" representation.
In 1891, the statue of Eros (a.k.a. Anteros) in Piccadilly Circus pointed southwest, towards parliament. It changed direction, pointing toward Shaftesbury Avenue, sometime after 1896.
When Irene Adler shoots Dredger's hat in the sewers, it is presumed that the bullet passed harmlessly above his head. However, when Dredger removes his hat, it is apparent that his head fills the bowl of the hat and would therefore have suffered a, most likely, fatal gunshot wound to the head.
When Holmes is reading the 'Police Gazette' given to him by Lestrade shortly after being released from jail, the text clearly repeats the same few paragraphs over and over.
When Watson is checking Lord Blackwood's pulse (at the neck) to confirm that he is deceased, Blackwood's nostrils are seen moving.
When fighting Dredger with the hammer at the boat dock, Holmes stumbles over one of the very large dock chains and moves it several inches, revealing it to be made of a lightweight material instead of iron.
When Sir Thomas Rotheram is in the bathtub, the water is running yet the surface of the water is still when his face is in view.
Following Holmes' leap from the Houses of Parliament, a statue of Queen Boudicca can be seen at the end of Westminster Bridge. The statue was erected in 1902, 8 years after the opening of Tower Bridge, which is partially built in the film.
In the beginning of the movie, a plastic shotgun cartridge can be seen in the breech of the shotgun. Plastic shotgun shells weren't introduced until 1960.
Characters refer to radio waves. The term "radio" was first used as a noun in 1907.
At the end of the film when you see London skyline with Sherlock sitting on Tower Bridge, you can see London Bridge in the distance but it is the wrong bridge. It is clearly the current London Bridge built 1973. The bridge in 1891 would have been the one sold to the USA which has totally different shape to the arches.
During Irene's first conversation with Holmes, she says she brought dates from Jordan. The country of Transjordan was established in 1921; the name changed to Jordan in 1949. Although, the name "Al-Urdun" (Jordan) was used on Umayyad post-reform copper coins beginning in the early 8th century, in 1890 the name Jordan did not appear on maps to represent the land of modern Jordan and would not have used other than as the name of the river Jordan. The land today known as the country of Jordan was labeled on maps of the era as Gilead or Bashan.
Studio lights reflected in some of the cutlery during the restaurant scene.
When Irene escapes from the sewers beneath Parliament with the poison, she emerges at Tower Bridge, about two and a half miles away, within 30 seconds.
Irene Adler is staying at the Grand Hotel, which is shown as being in Piccadilly Circus. It was actually in Trafalgar Square.
In the first overhead shot of street traffic, vehicles are driving on the right. The rest of the traffic shots show them driving on the left. The wide shot showing the streets of London shows two barouches driving on the right side of the road. In the UK, traffic travels on the left side.
The Prison in the film is/was not by the Thames.
As Holmes and Watson arrive at Nine Elms, Tower Bridge is visible in the background. This is not possible - from Nine Elms, the Tower Bridge is around a bend.
In the paddy wagon Lestrade gives Holmes the key to the handcuffs by placing it down the front of his shirt. Holmes' hands are cuffed behind his back so it would be impossible for him to retrieve the key and then unlock the cuffs.
When Sherlock is experimenting with the music and flying insects he says "...they fly in counterclockwise..." this is the American version of the term, the correct English term is anticlockwise.
Ambassador Standish is referred to both as the American ambassador to the United Kingdom and as the English ambassador to America. Based on his accent, he is clearly the former.
Holmes says Sir Thomas Rotheram is the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. That makes him a peer, so his title would be "Lord", not "Sir", which signifies knighthood.
At the end of the restaurant scene, in which Holmes analyzes Mary, who leaves in disgust, Holmes uses a knife and fork to cut up and eat his meal. He holds the fork vertically between thumb and index finger, American-style.
In just a few minutes Holmes runs from the Houses of Parliament to the Tower Bridge, which is over two miles apart.