"The Final Problem" is a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring his detective character Sherlock Holmes.

Conan Doyle later ranked "The Final Problem" fourth on his personal list of the twelve best Holmes stories.

[1] An injured Holmes arrives at Watson's residence one evening, having escaped three separate murder attempts that day.

Holmes then gives him unusual instructions intended to hide his tracks to the boat train at Victoria station before leaving Watson's house by climbing over the back wall in the garden, paranoid that he might be followed.

The next day, Watson follows Holmes's instructions and finds himself waiting in the reserved first-class coach for his friend, who is disguised as an elderly Italian priest.

Changing their planned route, Holmes and Watson alight at Canterbury, hiding behind the luggage as Moriarty (who had chartered a special one-coach train) passes them in pursuit.

He only finds two sets of footprints that lead to the end of the path, where he uncovers other signs of a violent struggle and a note from Holmes explaining that he knew about the hoax but chose to fight Moriarty himself.

"In 1893 he wrote in his diary, which still exists, that he wanted to kill Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls," says Jürg Musfeld, director of the Park Hotel du Sauvage, where Conan Doyle is believed to have stayed during his visit to the village.

[7] In an article published by the BBC, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong noted that "The public reaction to the death was unlike anything previously seen for fictional events."

[8] There were some stories that "young men throughout London wore black mourning crêpes on their hats or around their arms for the month of Holmes’ death" although these may have been exaggerations propounded by Doyle's son.

"[8] Pressure from fans eventually persuaded Doyle to bring Holmes back, writing The Hound of the Baskervilles (set before "The Final Problem") and reviving him in "The Adventure of the Empty House".

[9] Inhabitants of Meiringen are still grateful to Doyle and his creation Holmes for ensuring the enduring worldwide fame of their falls and considerably promoting tourism to the town.

A museum dedicated to Holmes is housed in the basement of the English Church, located in what has now been named Conan Doyle Place.

Fans who call themselves "pilgrims"[10] travel to Meiringen dressed as characters, both major and minor, from the Holmes stories.

In the television series Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett, the 1985 episode based on the story begins with the theft of the Mona Lisa, masterminded by Moriarty in order to sell prepared fakes to collectors.

Burke was replaced by Edward Hardwicke until the end of the show's run, starting with the adaptation of "The Empty House" which acted as the first episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

Holmes, the robotic Watson and Inspector Beth Lestrade later visit the burial site at Reichenbach Falls to confirm Moriarty's death upon news of a lookalike causing a crime spree in New London.

The orchestrator is revealed to be Dale "the Whale" Biederbeck, described as "the Genghis Khan of world finance," much like Moriarty as "the Napoleon of Crime."

Episode three of the first season of BBC's Sherlock, titled The Great Game shows a variation of the part where Moriarty confronts Holmes at Baker Street in the story.

"The Final Problem" was loosely adapted for multiple episodes of the American radio series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starring Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson, including episodes titled "Murder in the Waxworks" (March 1932),[17] "The Adventure of the Ace of Spades" (May 1932),[18] and "Murder by Proxy" (January 1933).

It featured Michael Pennington as Professor Moriarty, Frederick Treves as Colonel Moran, Sean Arnold as Inspector Patterson, Terence Edmond as Steiler, Richard Pearce as Jenkinson, and Norman Jones as Sir George.

[25] An episode of The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a series on the American radio show Imagination Theatre, combined "The Final Problem" with the events of "The Empty House".