Mr. Holmes (2015)

Ian McKellen: Sherlock Holmes

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sherlock Holmes : I've decided to write the story down; as it was, not as John made it. Get it right, before I die.

  Roger : You're not going to die.

  Sherlock Holmes : I'm 93.

  Roger : I had a great-uncle who lived to be 102.

  Sherlock Holmes : Well done. That seals my fate. What are the odds that you would know two men who would live that long?

  Roger : Well, I didn't actually know him.

  [Holmes laughs] 

• Roger : You ever been bitten by a bee?

  Sherlock Holmes : Stung! Bees don't have teeth! Yes, I have.

  Roger : But not often, though.

  Sherlock Holmes : 7,816 times. I keep a record.

  [Mrs. Munro appears while Roger is smoking the hive] 

  Sherlock Holmes : Well, not entirely dreadful.

  Mrs. Munro : You ever been bit?

  Sherlock Holmes : No. I have never been bit.

• Sherlock Holmes : I have been alone. All my life. But with the compensations of the intellect.

  Ann Kelmot : And is that enough?

  Sherlock Holmes : It can be. If one is so fortunate as to find a place in the world. And another soul with whom one's loneliness can reside.

• [Holmes explains a series of deductions about his last client] 

  Roger : But all that just told you he was married. How did you know he'd come to see you about his wife?

  Sherlock Holmes : [smiles]  Because when you're a detective, and a man comes to see you, it's usually about his wife.

• Sherlock Holmes : A man abandoned his family and wrote his son a story. He wouldn't be the first to cloak his cowardice in a flag of sacrifice.

• [waiting with Mrs. Munro outside Roger's hospital room] 

  Sherlock Holmes : There was a woman, once. I knew her less than a day. A quarter of an hour's conversation. She needed my help. She needed so desperately to be understood by someone... Me. So, I laid out the particulars of her case as I saw them... To her satisfaction, I thought. I watched her walk away. And within hours she'd ended her life. By identifying the cause of her despair with such clarity, I'd given her carte blanche to do just as she intended. I should've done whatever it took to save her. Lie to her, make up a story. Take her by the hand and hold her as she wept, and said, "Come live with me. "Let us be alone together." But I was fearful. Selfish. She's the reason I came here to my bees, so that I couldn't harm anyone ever again.

  [pause] 

  Sherlock Holmes : I'm leaving you the house. You and Roger. House, grounds, apiary, everything within and without. And as I shan't change my mind on this point, you will see, I trust, that it will be greatly less complicated for all concerned if the two of you don't go off to somewhere like... Portsmouth.

• Sherlock Holmes : Exceptional children are often the product of unremarkable parents.

• Sherlock Holmes : There seems to be an outbreak of mortality.

• Sherlock Holmes : My first foray into the world of fiction. One shouldn't leave this life without a sense of completion.

• Sherlock Holmes : [finishing his account of his final case]  And thus concludes the true story of a woman who died before her time, and a man who until recently was certain he had outlived his.

• [solving his last "case"] 

  Sherlock Holmes : The bees... didn't do it. The bees were not to blame. It was the wasps! Roger was trying to find out what was killing the bees. And he did. He found the wasps' nest. He had to stop them wiping out the bees. And so he did the worst possible thing. He tried to drown them with water from his can.

  Mrs. Munro : How do you know it was them?

  Sherlock Holmes : Bees leave their stings. Wasps don't. There were no stings left in Roger's face. And when they attacked, he dropped the watering can and ran up to protect the bees. There are his footprints from the apiary to the nest and back.

  Mrs. Munro : He was trying to save the bees.

  Sherlock Holmes : Yes.

  [Together, they pour kerosene on the wasps' nest, and set it ablaze] 

• [first lines] 

  Sherlock Holmes : You shouldn't do that. Tap the glass.

  Boy : How did you know I was going to?

  Boy's Mother : You must forgive my son, he loves bees.

  Sherlock Holmes : It isn't a bee, it's a wasp. Different thing entirely.

• Roger : She wants me to be a bootblack!

  Mrs. Munro : Roger!

  Roger : She wants me to do what she does!

  Mrs. Munro : There's no shame in what I do!

  Roger : You complain enough about it! Always going on about how hard things are.

  [to Holmes] 

  Roger : She can barely read!

  [Mrs. Munro storms out of the room] 

  Sherlock Holmes : Go after her. Apologize for saying things that were meant to hurt. You were cruel! If you don't apologize, you will regret it.

  Roger : People always say that.

  Sherlock Holmes : Because it's true.

  Roger : Do *you* regret anything?

  Sherlock Holmes : [with feeling]  So much.

• [Holmes sees Mrs. Munro pouring kerosene on his apiary, and rushes outside] 

  Sherlock Holmes : You mustn't do that!

  Mrs. Munro : My son won't wake. He may never wake. They sent me away till morning. You didn't even have the decency to tell me what'd happened to him!

  Sherlock Holmes : I didn't think it would make a difference.

  Mrs. Munro : [screaming]  I'm his mother! I'm his mother, and you stole him from me! He's all I had! And I've lost him now. Why wasn't it you they did it to? - It should've been you!

  Sherlock Holmes : The bees were not to blame.

  Mrs. Munro : They're all you care about!

  Sherlock Holmes : No! I care about Roger. I care about him very much...!

  [He breaks down sobbing] 

• Sherlock Holmes : I was given a small chest containing the Watson stories, none of which I'd ever actually read. They were, as John always described them, penny dreadfuls with an elevated prose style.

• Dr. Barrie : What happens when you don't recall where the telephone is? Or you forget to turn off the gas? You can't live alone.

  Sherlock Holmes : I don't live alone, I have the housekeeper!

• Tamiki Umezaki : So, Dr Watson's imagination changed you?

  Sherlock Holmes : I've never had much use for imagination. I prefer facts.

• Roger : Mum says you throw out most of the letters you get.

  Sherlock Holmes : And why do you think that is?

  Roger : The people who write want you to solve things. If you read their letters, you'd want to help.

  Sherlock Holmes : Oh, no. You give me too much credit. It's just if I were to read them, I'd feel obliged to respond.