5. Sherlock Holmes (2009) Blackwoods Radio Technology
The Technology Its Victorian London, and Lord Blackwood is attempting to take over the government and decides to do it by pretending he is in fact a dark magic wizard. Its a strange ruse, but he seems to be doing alright thanks to a combination of sleight of hand, trickery and technology. But king among his innovations is the invention of radio his now-dead scientist was far ahead of inventors with creating a working device, and now Blackwood plans to use it to poison an in-session Parliament by triggering a chemical bomb. After this, he and his inoculated followers most of whom dont know theyve been inoculated and will just think Blackwood is magic will run the country, using the threat of the dark arts to keep everyone under the jackboot.
What They Should Have Used It For Forgive me, but doesnt that all seem a little too grand? Pretending youre magic must be great and all, but when youve got a world-changing invention at your fingertips you dont really need to rely on parlour tricks to bring a country to heel. Really, you can just do it the old-fashioned way money. Money talked in Victorian Britain, and if Blackwood ever decided to patent the radio invention and put it into use, he couldve made himself an absolute heap of cash and brought the Parliament to his will through patronage. Remember, radio was a game-changer in all walks of life, and the man who could profit from it all would find himself stupendously rich very quicky. Yes, I guess it would be slow and Blackwood was a megalomaniac but he seemed to be clever and knew that he was a con-artist, implying hes capable of conniving with the best of them. If he would have just held on, he could have bought himself a seat in the House of Lords or a particularly corrupt Commons seat and negotiated his way to power through bribery. It wasnt something you could put past some of Britains old Prime Ministers and even the Kennedys made their way into power through money and influence, so whats stopping Blackwood? Nothing, thats what.