Poster © Warner Bros. Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction, Adventure & Mystery
RatedPG-13
Runtime2 hr 9 mins
ReleasedDecember 16, 2011
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorGuy Ritchie
StarringRobert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace
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Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
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| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
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| Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows's Details | |
| Genre | Action, Adventure & Mystery |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 12/16/2011 |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 2 hr 9 mins |
| Budget | $125M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |
| Country | United States, United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows's Interests | |
| General | Disguises, chess, slow-motion fight planning, trains, Mycroft's country house. |
| Music | Hans Zimmer. Jangly, sneaky and a little chaotic, just like Holmes. |
| Movies | Sherlock Holmes (2009). Round one, same duo, same bickering. |
| Television | Sherlock. Benedict Cumberbatch, also in a hurry, also annoying Watson. |
| Heroes | Dr. John Watson. Most patient best friend in literary history. |
| Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows's Crew | |
| Director | Guy Ritchie |
| Writers | Kieran Mulroney, Michele Mulroney |
| Producers | Dan Lin, Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey |
| Cinematography | Philippe Rousselot |
| Music | Hans Zimmer |
| Edited By | James Herbert |
| Production | Village Roadshow Pictures, Silver Pictures, Wigram Productions |
| Distributed By | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Sequel math: twice the slow motion, three times the explosions, half the mystery. A Game of Shadows has a reported $125 million budget and spends a chunk of it on a forest chase where bullets crawl through the air like they’re stuck in traffic. The plot is a fog of bombs, letters and train rides that’s hard to follow and harder to care about. Noomi Rapace is barely given a character. Here’s what saves it. Jared Harris plays Moriarty as a calm, polite professor who is clearly smarter than everyone, and his scenes with Downey crackle. Stephen Fry turns up as Mycroft and steals his corner of the movie. Downey also spends one train fight in a dress and full makeup, and the movie treats it as completely normal. It made $543.8 million worldwide, which tells you the crowd didn’t mind the noise. A 6.2 because the villain is great and the movie around him is mostly racket. $222 says you play chess this month and spend more time narrating your moves than making them.
What works: Jared Harris makes Moriarty a genuine match for Holmes, and Stephen Fry is a delight as Mycroft.
What doesn’t: The plot is a tangle of bombs and train hops that’s hard to track, and Noomi Rapace is stuck playing a character with almost nothing to do.
Who it’s for: Fans of the first film who mostly came back to watch Downey and Law bicker some more.
Spoilers
Holmes and Moriarty finish their game on a balcony at Reichenbach Falls, and Holmes pulls them both over the edge to stop him. Watson believes his friend is gone, until the last scene shows Holmes survived and is hiding in Watson’s office, camouflaged in a chair.
It's 1891, bombs keep going off across Europe, and Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) is convinced it's all the work of one man: Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris), a respected mathematician with perfect manners. Nobody else sees it. Meanwhile, Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) just wants to marry Mary (Kelly Reilly) and leave the detective business behind. Holmes has other plans, starting with a bachelor party that turns into a case and a fortune teller, Simza Heron (Noomi Rapace), who is searching for her missing brother. Guy Ritchie directs. One hundred twenty-nine minutes, one very interrupted honeymoon.
Masters of disguise and chess nerds. Watson would just like to get married, please.
Madame Simza "Sim" Heronphoto: Myles Kalus Anak Jihem, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
| Robert Downey Jr. | Sherlock Holmes |
| Jude Law | Dr. John Watson |
| Jared Harris | Professor James Moriarty |
| Noomi Rapace | Madame Simza "Sim" Heron |
| Stephen Fry | Mycroft Holmes |
| Kelly Reilly | Mary Morstan |
| Rachel McAdams | Irene Adler |
| Eddie Marsan | Inspector Lestrade |
| Paul Anderson | Sebastian Moran |
| Geraldine James | Mrs. Hudson |
| Thierry Neuvic | Claude Ravache |
| Fatima Adoum | a Manouche |
| Wolf Kahler | Dr. Hoffmanstahl |
| Affif Ben Badra | Tamas Morato |
| William Houston | Constable Clark |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 18 October 2026 DataBot +40 Numbers refreshed: IMDb users 7.4 / 10 (506,382 votes) → 7.4 / 10 (506,395 votes).
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $543.8M; Domestic box office $186.8M; Opening weekend $39.6M; Profit / loss (est.) +$84.4M; Rotten Tomatoes 60%; CinemaScore A−; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 60% (224 reviews); Metacritic 48 / 100; CinemaScore A−; IMDb users 7.4 / 10 (506,382 votes); movie.guru score 6.1.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.