History Film / TheBluesBrothers

* GratuitousNazis: On their quest, the boys just happen to run into Illinois Nazis.  On the other hand, in 1977 a group of real American Nazis attempted to hold a parade/rally in Skokie, IL (a suburb of Chicago with a large Jewish population) and, when they were denied a permit, filed a lawsuit alleging violation of their First Amendment right that attracted the attention of the ACLU... on the side of the Nazis! – so why not?

* GratuitousNazis: On their quest, the boys just happen to run into Illinois Nazis.

In 1980, they got a musical-extravaganza feature film--directed by Creator/JohnLandis, and titled ''The Blues Brothers''--that quickly and deservedly became a CultClassic. As the film begins, "Joliet" Jake Blues has [[JustGotOutOfJail just been released from prison]], with Elwood there to pick him up in a battered piece of crap that was formerly a police cruiser. (Elwood is not silent in this film; in fact, he gives a few serious lectures.) Fulfilling a promise made before Jake began serving his sentence, the brothers head to the Catholic orphanage where they were reared and visit "The Penguin" (Creator/KathleenFreeman), the nun who runs the place. During this meeting, the brothers are informed that the orphanage is going to be closed down if its outstanding $5,000[[note]]Roughly $17,000 in 2022 dollars[[/note]] property tax bill can't be paid off by the end of the month.

'''Jake:''' [[https://youtu.be/fyFeJE2HNtM Hit it.]]

* BulletproofFashionPlate: The boys' suits. True to the trope, ending up covered in mud signals that their situation has gone to hell.

* BlindShoulderToss: Early on, when Jake tries out the cigar-lighter in the police car his brother came in to fetch him out at the prison, he finds it not working and impatiently tosses it by the window.

* EstablishingSeriesMoment: A fairly lengthy one, but the scene just after Jake gets out of prison basically sets the tone for the rest of the movie. The Brothers hug it out, bicker with each other in a scene laden with deadpan humor (including flicking a cigarette lighter out the window like it's a spent match), and then [[RampJump jump a bridge]]. All set to the tune of "She Caught the Katy".

* AllInTheEyes: The eyes of the Neo-Nazi leader are lit like this while he's standing in front of Wrigley Field declaring war on Jake and Elwood.

* RareGuns: The Mystery Woman's prop rocket launcher is obviously based on the M202 FLASH.

* HatedByAll: ''Nobody'' likes [[ThoseWackyNazis Illinois Nazis]]. The cops at their rally were only there by decision of the court, one of them calling them "bums." Everyone cheers when the Blues Brothers drive them into the water.

* {{Acrofatic}}: John Belushi. The only thing they needed a body double for was the backflips in the church.

* AmbiguouslyGay: The Head Nazi's lieutenant, who tells him "I've always loved you", just before they crash through the street, leaving a huge pothole. It's not clear if he means it in a platonic or romantic sense.
** When the band are meeting with their manager, Jake puts some pressure on him by commenting that he'll ring up Mrs. Sline because there's something he "want[s] to tell her". The film then cuts to a wider shot, showing the whole band and Mr. Sline sitting in what's either a sauna or a Turkish bath—each locations associated to some degree with casual gay sex, particularly the latter.

** The Bluesmobile 'throws a rod' halfway through the chase through Chicago and sprays oil on the windshield, which then disappears moments later. The rear window that is shot out early on also reappears throughout the film, finally disappearing in final chase.
** While being chased through Chicago, Elwood takes a wrong turn on the highway and ends up on an unfinished portion, slams on the brakes, and shifts to reverse. The rear end dips down, causing the [[TheMemobile Bluesmobile]] to flip end over end, and somehow face the opposite direction. No one's figured out how.[[note]]Clearly the car was on a mission for God[[/note]] The Nazis chasing them drive right off the end, and crash into a street, causing a hole to break open in the road; the second car then drives into the hole.

** On the other hand, they were in Park Ridge, IL, so it's possible they may been driving on a state owned road at the time.

** Do ''not'' use unacceptable language in front of The Penguin. Taking the Lord's name in vain is even worse.

'''Jake:''' No I didn't! Honest...I ran out of gas. I...I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!!!

* BlindShoulderToss: Early on, when Jake tries out the cigar-lighter in the police car his brother came fetch him out at the prison, he finds it not working and impatiently tosses it by the window.

* BookEnds: The movie opens and closes with Jake in jail. He's just being released in the beginning and performing while re-incarcerated at the end.

* ChaseSceneObstacleCourse: One of the most iconic scenes in the film starts as a simple parking lot chase outside an indoor mall. The eponymous brothers then crash through a toy store, and the police follow suit. They swerve around (and sometimes go through) booths, clip and sometimes go through corner stores, and finally fly out the window of one of the anchor stores.

* CoolCar: The Bluesmobile. At the beginning of movie, it's WhatAPieceOfJunk; at the end of movie, it's TheAllegedCar. It survives jump after jump, being driven through a shopping mall, and a high-speed chase with a thrown rod, among other things--and then it ''literally'' [[CriticalExistenceFailure falls apart upon reaching the property tax office]]. Elwood briefly pauses to pay his last respects to the wreck while the cops are still chasing them. They no longer needed the car, so it was no longer under God's protection.

* CrazyPrepared: Elwood produces various props that are all exactly perfect for whatever needs to be done, from spare white bread for toasting to the materials needed to sabotage elevators and vehicles. One of the restored scenes (included in every home video release since 1998) reveals where Elwood got some of those materials--from the aerosol-products factory where he worked.

* CreepyCatholicism: The title characters go "to see 'The Penguin'" - a very stern, heavyset, intimidating Catholic nun who wields a wooden 3-foot ruler like a martial arts weapon and moves with a GhostlyGlide. Her office looks like the set of a horror movie, with prominent sculptures of Christ suffering on the Cross and plenty of creepy shadows.

** During the concert at the end, Curtis manages to get the whole crowd singing along to parts of "Minnie the Moocher". A better example, however, may be the scene in Ray's Music Exchange - true, the crowd doesn't sing along to "Shake your Tailfeather", but they do dance along, with remarkable accuracy and skill, after which everyone cheers. Presumably they were happy to get the take.
** "Minnie" is ''totally'' justified, as it's a call-and-response song that Music/CabCalloway was known for performing the same way "Curtis" does in the movie, and the audience would faithfully sing along. It's not like "hi de hi de hi de hi" are difficult lyrics, after all. The one time Calloway actually breaks out into something that's hard to follow (something like "zip-dot-deet-doot-diddly-zip-a-deet-dot-diddly-zip-zap-zeet-do-ooohh"), the audience just laughs in response.
** Also when Mrs. Murphy starts singing at her husband, not only do the customers keep time, but the girls at the counter become spontaneous backup singers. After the song ends, they sit down as if nothing had happened.

* DebutQueue: Goes hand-in-hand with PuttingTheBandBackTogether--we start with the Blues Brothers, then meet every member of their band sequentially as they track them down.

* DingyTrainsideApartment: Elwood takes Jake to his tiny room in a broken-down flophouse. Aside from the fact that there's no room to move, the Chicago "L" passes by ever time the window is shown.

* BigBad: The Head Nazi.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: Lt. Elizondo (played by Nia Peeples) gets comically banged up in the cruiser pile-up. While naturally she's not really hurt, this kind of slapstick wouldn't fly back in the 80s.

There was a {{sequel}}, titled ''Blues Brothers 2000'' (though it was actually released in 1998). While John Landis helmed the director's chair once again, the sequel didn't go over quite as well as the original, not least because several important players, most notably Creator/JohnBelushi, had died in the interim. (The death [[RealLifeWritesThePlot was actually worked into]] [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim the film's plot]]; while this didn't really help, it was at least respectful to Belushi's memory.) But while the plot wasn't up to snuff compared with the original, most fans agreed that the music at least was pretty good.

* TenMinuteRetirement: Elwood gets an unconvincing one in the sequel.

* {{Acrofatic}}: John Belushi. The only thing they needed a body double for was the backflips in the church. Mighty Mack in the sequel.

* AffectionateParody: The scene with John Popper in the sequel reads like an affectionate parody, verging on a TakeThat, of the fans and the unease felt by Landis and Aykroyd whenever blues fans and musicians tell them that the Blues Brothers are these really great blues musicians, on par with B.B. King or other well known names.

** The Bluesmobile in the original movie [[WhatAPieceOfJunk plays with this trope]]. It's a beat-up surplus police cruiser with a missing cigarette lighter (thanks to Jake throwing it out the window after he found out it didn't work), but it can jump over an opening drawbridge and hold its own through several high-speed chases. It only falls apart when the brothers reach the tax assessor's office in Chicago for the final punchline, and only after having withstood a Herculean amount of punishment.
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:The whole plot of the first film was to collect enough money to save the orphanage Jake and Elwood were reared in, the film ending with them paying the money and being arrested right after. ''Blues Brothers 2000'' begins with Elwood leaving prison (Jake having died at some point) and finding out that they lost the orphanage anyway.]]

* AlliterativeName: Mighty Mack [=McTeer=] in ''2000''.

* AsHimself: Played with. The band members play themselves. The majority of them were part of the original backing band, and are well known blues and R&B legends, including Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn (both of whom played for Music/OtisRedding, amongst others), and Matt "Guitar" Murphy. Paul Shaffer turns up in ''Blues Brothers 2000'', but he's not actually playing himself -- he instead adopts a thick French accent, playing the role of Queen Mousette's aide, Marco. He later takes off the wig and performs with the band, though, for which he gets credited both as Marco and as himself on the end credits list.

** Creator/JamesBelushi filled in for his late brother in a handful of live shows. Averted in the sequel, where he wasn't cast, due to scheduling and contract issues. It could have worked quite nicely.

* BadassInANiceSuit: Subverted. The brothers wear black suits, but it's soon revealed that those are the only clothes they own. They wear them to bed, into the sauna, etc. Unsurprisingly, they smell bad. Lampshaded in the sequel when Elwood tells his new partners why they have to dress the same way.

* BattleOfTheBands: Where the band is ultimately headed in the sequel.
* BavarianFireDrill:
** In the original, Jake stalls the Good Ol' Boys by posing as union rep "Jacob Stein... from the American Federation of Musicians." He even quickly flashes an empty pack of cigarettes like a badge.
** In the sequel, Elwood's "puffball bacteria." Creator/JohnGoodman's [[LargeHam intentional hamming it up]] and Evan Bonifant's over-the-top screaming are both hilarious, but the rest of the band ''completely ignoring them'' is what sells it.

* BigBad: The Head Nazi in the original film.
** The sequel has the Russian {{Mafiya}} taking over as the head villains.

* BloodlessCarnage: Despite the ''gazillions'' of dollars in property damage throughout the first movie, nobody dies. Even the Nazis only get slammed into a giant pothole, after falling a cartoonishly long way.
* BolivianArmyEnding: ''Blues Brothers 2000'' ends with [[spoiler:Elwood and Buster racing away from Queen Mousette's contest (leaving the rest of the band behind, playing "Mississipi Queen" with Mousette's band) while chased by a miles-long line of police cruisers. We assume that Elwood will try some crazy stunt to try to lose them eventually (his final line in the film is telling Buster to "buckle up")]], but aside from that, anything goes.
* BookEnds: The first movie opens and closes with Jake in jail. He's just being released in the beginning and performing while re-incarcerated at the end.

*** Someone climbing out of a wrecked car and complaining of a broken watch happens in the sequel as well, at least according to the subtitle.
** In the first film, Elwood's favorite meal is two pieces of dry white toast. He orders it at the soul food restaurant, tries to cook some in his apartment and even pulls some out of his pocket in Ray's music store to try out a toaster oven. In the second film, the police invade Bob's Country Kitchen to look for the Blues Brothers, and notice the table where they were sitting. One of the plates has two pieces of dry white toast on it.

* CarFu: Taken to an exorbitant extreme in ''both'' films, as both contain 50+ car pileups. The first film held the Guinness World Record for most cars destroyed in a single movie (reports vary, but the number's about 75 to 80) for ''18 years'', finally being surpassed by the ''sequel'', (over 100, as reported by Guinness) for another 11 years. That's almost 200 cars destroyed and almost 30 years of car-totaling supremacy.

** "The Lord works in mysterious ways." in the sequel.

* ChaseScene: Several times. The last quarter of the first movie is one ''giant'' ChaseScene.

* CheckPlease: Bob's Country Kitchen in the second movie.

** In the second film, you see some wiring hooked up to the ignition of the Bluesmobile when they reveal where Elwood is. A short time later, you see the wiring is part of a secondary control method.

* CloserToEarth: Music/ArethaFranklin's character, who tries to dissuade her husband (Matt "Guitar" Murphy) from rejoining the Blues Brothers in both films.

* CoolCar:
** The Bluesmobile. At the beginning of movie, it's WhatAPieceOfJunk; at the end of movie, it's TheAllegedCar. It survives jump after jump, being driven through a shopping mall, and a high-speed chase with a thrown rod, among other things--and then it ''literally'' [[CriticalExistenceFailure falls apart upon reaching the property tax office]]. Elwood briefly pauses to pay his last respects to the wreck while the cops are still chasing them. They no longer needed the car, so it was no longer under God's protection.
** The car in the sequel can drive ''underwater''.

* CoolShades: Which they almost never take off. Flat-out parodied, like everything else, in ''2000'' when Cabel tells Elwood to take his hat and glasses off in the office. The camera pans to Cabel, then back to Elwood--covering his eyes with his arm to avoid being [[DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes blinded by normal indoor light]].

* CrazyEnoughToWork: In the sequel, they shrug off a bunch of Russian gangsters chasing them by dumping out a bag of [[strike:thumb tacks]] [[strike:carpenter nails]] [[InsistentTerminology drywall nails]], and they drive directly into it. It works.

%% * DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes: See CoolShades

* DenserAndWackier: ''2000'' is a ''lot'' more cartoonish than the first film, featuring things such as a voodoo witch who turns the band into zombies and rednecks into rats.

* DineAndDash:
** In the first film, the band are booked at a western bar. They order some drinks in between performances, but come time to pay, find out it's more than they can afford. With this plus the arrival of the real country band whose place they took, Elwood and Jake end up fleeing, with said band and the bar owner now added to their list of pursuers.
** In the sequel, the band stop at a diner to get some food, but are tracked by some officers looking for Elwood. Upon seeing this, Elwood [[YouDontWantToCatchThis fakes a disease]] by covering his head in shaving cream and having Big Mac warn the patrons to stay away as they, along with Buster, stumble out of the building, Big Mac grabbing his sandwich on the way out. Humorously, the owner of the place, who was also the owner of the bar (converted in the years since the first movie) experiences deja vu and asks the band if he knows them. The band quickly eat their food and call for their check.

* DreamTeam: The Blues Brothers band in-universe, as well as the Louisiana Gator Boys in the second film.

* EtherealChoir:
** Heard by Jake when he sees the light.
** Also heard by Cab in the sequel when he similarly has an epiphany.

* FanserviceExtra: Some of the strippers in ''Blues Brothers 2000'' are quite easy on the eyes with their [[{{Understatement}} revealing outfits.]]

* FastRoping: How the SWAT team comes in near the end of the first movie. "Hut hut hut hut!" Exactly why is anyone's guess since they don't go through any of the building's windows.
* FatAndSkinny: Jake and Elwood in the first film, and Elwood and Mighty Mack in the second.
* FemmeFatalons: Creator/CarrieFisher in the original.

* GenerationXerox: Cabel Chamberlain sings and dances just like Curtis, and by the end of the second movie, Buster has turned into a mini-Elwood.
* GenreShift: While the first film has more than its share of goofy, over-the-top humor, the sequel goes more in the direction of outright fantasy, including a performance of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" causing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to appear, Cabel being transformed into a Blues Brother by God, and the climax [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext revolving around a 130-year-old voodoo lady, who temporarily transforms the Blues Brothers into zombies and the pursuing bad guys into rats.]]

* GospelRevivalNumber: Both Blues Brothers movies — first one having "The Old Landmark" (with Music/JamesBrown presiding!), second time around featuring John The Revelator (although we get a taste of the song during the opening credits too, with Taj Mahal singing solo. It's later on sung again at a Tent Revival by James Brown, Sam "The Supervoice" Moore, and Joe Morton.

* HappyEndingOverride: The sequel starts with Elwood being informed of Jake's death, and later Curtis's as well. To make matters worse, we quickly learn that the orphanage Jake and Elwood went through so much trouble to save in the first movie was shut down anyway sometime in between the two movies.

* HilarityEnsues: To put it simply, Jake and Elwood’s actions throughout the first film cause a number of things to escalate.

* HollywoodPoliceDrivingAcademy: If the cops' driving were any worse, they would burst into flame as soon as they got in. The ones in the sequel are the advanced class, to the point where it breaks the SuspensionOfDisbelief. At least when they confront the pileup at the end of Lower Wacker Drive in the first film, the cops stop.
* HollywoodVoodoo: Queen Mouset in the sequel.

* JustGotOutOfJail:
** The movie begins with "Joliet" Jake Blues being released on parole from Joliet State Penitentiary.
** The sequel begins with Elwood getting out of jail, though Jake did not join him.

* LivingProp: Tom "Bones" Malone in the first one. All the other band members had at least one memorable scene. Tom only has a handful of lines and doesn't do anything memorable.

* LongList:
** In the second movie, Elwood runs down the list of musical genres the Blues Brothers are capable of performing. It includes just about every genre imaginable (except Caribbean music, for whatever reason).
** Jake's [[HurricaneOfExcuses absurd amount of excuses]] to his fiancée as to why he left her at the altar.

* TheMafiya: The sequel substitutes Russian mobsters for Illinois Nazis.

* MassiveMultiplayerEnsembleNumber: "Jailhouse Rock" in the first movie, "New Orleans" in the second movie.

* MotorMouth: Elwood. In ''both'' movies (and indeed, in the gigs prior to the movie's creation)! This is Creator/DanAykroyd's trademark, as a tribute to Creator/JackWebb.

* NeverBareheaded: As with the CoolShades, the brothers' hats are never removed--except when Elwood uses his as a glove to punch out a window, and when he takes it off for a moment in a gesture of respect for the (very) defunct Bluesmobile. In the sequel, Elwood takes it off two times: when Caleb tells him to do so, and when he's face to face with Queen Mousette, as a gesture of respect, prompting the other members of the band to do the same. She appreciates the gesture.

* NoEnding: The second film ends with [[spoiler:Elwood and Buster on the run from authorities; whether they escape is uncertain.]]
* NoEndorHolocaust:
** Parodied; after the car crash in ''2000'', every police officer is shown climbing safely out of the mountain of wrecked cars.
** An inferred, more straightforward variant happens in the first film, when Jake's ex-fiancée blows up the hotel where the brothers are staying. Immediately afterwards, we see the brothers, and then the cops climb out of the debris none the worse for wear, presumably meaning that everyone else there survived too.

** Elwood at the climax of ''2000'', when he sees the Penguin in the audience, and she sees ''him''.

* OverlyLongGag: The car chase in the second movie.
** The beer bottles being thrown at Bob’s Country Bunker.

* RankUp: Creator/FrankOz's appearance in ''2000'' is supposed to imply his property supervisor character from the first movie has been promoted to prison warden in the interim.

* RoadBlock: Both films.
** In ''The Blues Brothers'', the Blues brothers escape the cops by driving into a mall. Later, they hide the Bluesmobile in a sewer ''directly under'' a roadblock outside their gig. They also humiliate the Illinois Nazis' protest--blocking a bridge--by ''driving straight at them'', to the crowd's applause.
** In ''The Blues Brothers 2000'', a roadblock has been set up; Elwood gets around it by driving ''under'' a river.
* RousingSpeech: ''Blues Brothers 2000'' has Buster verbally kicking Elwood's rear end, followed up by this gem:
-->'''Elwood:''' You may go if you wish. Remember this: Walk away now and you walk away from your crafts, your skills, your vocations; leaving the next generation with nothing but recycled, digitally-sampled techno-grooves, quasi-synth rhythms, pseudo-songs of violence-laden gangsta-rap, acid pop, and simpering, saccharine, soulless slush. Depart now and you forever separate yourselves from the vital American legacies of Music/RobertJohnson, Music/MuddyWaters, Willie Dixon, Music/JimmyReed, Memphis Slim, Blind Boy Fuller, Louis Jordan, Little Walter, Big Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson I (and II), Music/OtisRedding, Jackie Wilson, Music/ElvisPresley, Music/LeiberAndStoller, and Robert K. Weiss.\\
'''Duck Dunn:''' Who is Robert K. Weiss?\\
''[Duck, Cropper, and Bones Malone shrug]'' [[note]]Mr. Weiss is a movie and TV writer/producer/director with over 40 credits, including the Dan Aykroyd vehicles ''Film/DoctorDetroit'', ''Film/{{Dragnet}}'', and... the first ''Blues Brothers'' movie.[[/note]]\\
'''Elwood:''' Turn your backs now and you snuff out the fragile candles of Blues, R&B, and Soul, and when those flames flicker and expire, the light of the world is extinguished because the music which has moved mankind through seven decades leading to the millennium will wither and die on the vine of abandonment and neglect.

** Lots of them ranging from the obvious ("We're on a MissionFromGod") to the subtle (Jake constantly checking his watch, which was declared broken in the first scene). There's also the ones in the sequel referring to the first movie, from Elwood throwing the cigarette lighter out the window to all the cops being [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy terrible shots]].

** "The Lord works in mysterious ways," said by Jake, becomes the running gag of ''2000''.
** Elwood stealing things (the windshield wipers from the gas station in the first movie; the toilet paper from Bob's Country Kitchen in the second).

* SenselessViolins: In the sequel, a Russian gangster at the country fair hides his sniper rifle in a guitar case.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness:
** Jake's conversation with Elwood when they come to dine at Chez Paul.
** Elwood's RousingSpeech to the band in ''2000'' takes this one up to eleven.
* ShaggyDogStory: ''Blues Brothers 2000'' inadvertently turned the first movie into this by revealing that the Saint Helen of the Blessed Shroud Orphanage was demolished anyway, meaning that Jake and Elwood went through all that grief in the first movie for '''nothing'''. May also count as ShootTheShaggyDog in Jake's case.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Averted by Creator/JohnGoodman in the sequel, who distinguishes himself from Belushi in his performance ''and'' his singing.

** When the police invade Bob's Country Kitchen in the sequel to look for the Blues Brothers, they notice the table where they were sitting. One of the plates has two pieces of dry white toast on it.

* IFoughtTheLawAndTheLawWon: A scene from the film provides the current trope image. There really was no escaping the Chicago Police Department in the end.

* BolivianArmyEnding:
** By the end of the movie, the band is being chased by at least [[spoiler:the Chicago city police, the Illinois state troopers, the Chicago fire department, the Harvey Police Department, the Wauconda Police Department, Joliet Jake's jilted fiancée, a cowboy band, the owner of a western-themed club, a private detective, the FBI, a SWAT team, the Illinois National Guard, the security team at the Bank of Chicago, and every member of the US Nazi party in the tri-state area. Thankfully, it ends with them going to prison as opposed to getting killed.]] Not to mention the countless others who may not have been shown on screen.
** ''Blues Brothers 2000'' ends with [[spoiler:Elwood and Buster racing away from Queen Mousette's contest (leaving the rest of the band behind, playing "Mississipi Queen" with Mousette's band) while chased by a miles-long line of police cruisers. We assume that Elwood will try some crazy stunt to try to lose them eventually (his final line in the film is telling Buster to "buckle up")]], but aside from that, anything goes.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Jakes ex-fiancee wants revenge on him? All she had to do was wait for the cops to arrest both him and Elwood at the hotel. She even ''sees'' the cops arrive, and could probably guess what they were there for. But no, she had to do it herself and as a result of blowing up the entire hotel, stops the cops arresting them both and they get away.

->'''Elwood:''' It's 106 miles to Chicago. We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.
->'''Jake:''' [[https://youtu.be/fyFeJE2HNtM Hit it.]]

In 1980, they got a musical-extravaganza feature film--directed by Creator/JohnLandis, and titled ''The Blues Brothers''--that quickly and deservedly became a CultClassic. As the film begins, "Joliet" Jake Blues has [[JustGotOutOfJail just been released from prison]], with Elwood there to pick him up in a battered piece of crap that was formerly a police cruiser. (Elwood is not silent in this film; in fact, he gives a few serious lectures.) Fulfilling a promise made before Jake began serving his sentence, the brothers head to the Catholic orphanage where they were raised and visit "The Penguin" (Creator/KathleenFreeman), the nun who runs the place. During this meeting, the brothers are informed that the orphanage is going to be closed down if its outstanding $5,000[[note]]Roughly $17,000 in 2022 dollars[[/note]] property tax bill can't be paid off by the end of the month.

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler: The whole plot of the first film was to collect enough money to save the orphanage Jake and Elwood were raised in, the film ending with them paying the money and being arrested right after. ''Blues Brothers 2000'' begins with Elwood leaving prison (Jake having died at some point) and finding out that they lost the orphanage anyway.]]

-->'''Mystery Woman''': You miserable slug! You think you can talk your way out of this? You betrayed me!
-->'''Jake''': No I didn't! Honest...I ran out of gas. I...I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!!!

** By the end of the movie, the band is being chased by at least [[spoiler: the Chicago city police, the Illinois state troopers, the Chicago fire department, the Harvey Police Department, the Wauconda Police Department, Joliet Jake's jilted fiancée, a cowboy band, the owner of a western-themed club, a private detective, the FBI, a SWAT team, the Illinois National Guard, the security team at the Bank of Chicago, and every member of the US Nazi party in the tri-state area. Thankfully, it ends with them going to prison as opposed to getting killed.]] Not to mention the countless others who may not have been shown on screen.

** Elwood awkwardly propositions Twiggy... then, while he's driving like a bat out of hell towards Chicago, we see her waiting at his suggested trysting place. (The film was originally going to end on another one, with Twiggy, Music/ArethaFranklin, and Creator/CarrieFisher waiting in silence outside [[spoiler: the prison]], presumably for the Brothers and Matt Murphy to get out.)

-->'''Elwood''': The new Oldsmobiles are in early this year!
* CarPorn: From [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTOg4aYGtdY an early scene]]:
-->'''Jake:''' What the hell is this?
-->'''Elwood:''' This was a bargain. I picked it up at the Mt. Prospect City Police auction last spring. It's an old Mt. Prospect Police car. They were practically giving them away.
-->'''Jake:''' Well, thank you, pal. The day I get out of prison, my own brother picks me up in a police car.
-->'''Elwood:''' You don't like it?
-->'''Jake:''' No, I don't like it.
-->''[Elwood guns the motor and jumps the car over an opening drawbridge on the Chicago River]''
-->'''Jake:''' Car's got a lot of pickup.
-->'''Elwood:''' It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters, so it'll run good on regular gas. What do you say? Is it the new Bluesmobile or what?
-->'''Jake:''' Fix the cigarette lighter.

--->'''Elwood:''' This is definitely Lower Wacker Drive! If my estimations are correct, we should be very close to the Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza!
--->'''Jake:''' That's where they got that Picasso!
--->'''Elwood:''' Yep.

* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler: The two head Nazis suffer quite a spectacularly ludicrous one after flying off an unfinished bridge.]] It's not shown if they survive but after seeing Jake and Elwood survive a bazooka attack and their building being obliterated by a ''bomb'', it's not unlikely.

* EvilDebtCollector: Jake and Elwood attempt to put on another show in order to save the orphanage they were raised in from being closed due to back tax debt.

-->'''Elwood Blues:''' We're the Good Ol' Blues Brothers... Boys. Band.

-->'''Jake''': Oh, please, don't kill us! Please, please don't kill us! You know I love you baby. I wouldn't leave ya. It wasn't my fault!
-->'''Mystery Woman''': You miserable slug! You think you can talk your way out of this? You betrayed me.
-->'''Jake''': No, I didn't! Honest! I ran out of gas! I, I had a flat tire! I didn't have enough money for cab fare! My tux didn't come back from the cleaners! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE! A TERRIBLE FLOOD! LOCUSTS! '''IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!'''

-->'''HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT'''

* LiteralGenie: The car chase through the mall starts with Jake being a little vague and Elwood taking his request literally:
--> '''Jake:''' You got us into this parking lot, pal, so you get us out.\\

'''Elwood:''' ''[Perfect deadpan]'' No ma'am. We're musicians.

** The head Nazi and his lieutenant, when the Bluesmobile does a 180-degree flip over them with Jake and Elwood driving away, and they end up taking a flying leap off the incomplete expressway bridge, [[spoiler: and their car crashes through the pavement below, leaving a gigantic pothole in the street below.]]

* PlotArmor: They get shot at with a rocket launcher, caught in a collapsing building, launched sky-high in a phone booth, splattered with beer, and shot at with an automatic rifle from point-blank range and ''never get wounded''. And five seconds later [[DirtForceField their suits are clean and pressed again]]--in all but the last situation, anyway, when they go face-down in the mud to avoid the shots. This is because, as they constantly remind you, they are on a MissionFromGod. [[spoiler: The armor wears off the second their mission is concluded, landing them both in the slammer.]]

-->'''[=McElroy=]:''' You’re going to look pretty funny trying to eat corn on the cob with no ''fuckin’ teeth!''

* ProductPlacement: The car chase through the mall features a number of store banners and individual products mentioned by name by the Blue Brothers themselves. But it's such a fantastic and memorable scene that you probably ''won't even notice at all'' that you just saw an extended product placement sequence!
-->'''Jake''': This place has got ''everything''!

** Before the sound-check Curtis explains to the band that they need to do it for the kids, since the Blues Brothers will use the money raised from that concert to pay the taxes for a church. The look on the faces of the band after they hear it is priceless!

* AWizardDidIt: A deleted scene was intended to HandWave why the Bluesmobile can do so many fantastic stunts. The Brothers parked it under a bunch of power transformers, allowing it to get "charged up." Since this scene was removed (and never really explained, even in versions that include it), Landis has offered the following explanation: "It's just a magic car."

In 1980, they got a musical-extravaganza feature film--directed by Creator/JohnLandis, and titled ''The Blues Brothers''--that quickly and deservedly became a CultClassic. As the film begins, "Joliet" Jake Blues has [[JustGotOutOfJail just been released from prison]], with Elwood there to pick him up in a battered piece of crap that was formerly a police cruiser. (Elwood is not silent in this film; in fact, he gives a few serious lectures.) Fulfilling a promise made before Jake began serving his sentence, the brothers head to the Catholic orphanage where they were raised and visit "The Penguin" (Creator/KathleenFreeman), the nun who runs the place. During this meeting, the brothers are informed that the orphanage is going to be closed down if its outstanding $5,000[[note]] Roughly $17 K in 2022[[/note]] property tax bill can't be paid off by the end of the month.

* NiceHat: As with the CoolShades, the brothers' hats are never removed--except when Elwood uses his as a glove to punch out a window, and when he takes it off for a moment in a gesture of respect for the (very) defunct Bluesmobile. In the sequel, Elwood takes it off two times: when Caleb tells him to do so, and when he's face to face with Queen Mousette, as a gesture of respect, prompting the other members of the band to do the same. She appreciates the gesture.

* HilarityEnsues

** Elwood's RousingSpeech to the band in ''2000'' takes this one UpToEleven.

* SloMoBigAir: Jake and Elwood have this in their Bluesmobile. Some say it was because they were on a Mission from God. A deleted scene (put back into the special edition disc release) had Elwood parking it by a power transformer to "charge it up." John Landis cut that scene because he felt the car's special abilities didn't need explanation; he said "It's just a magic car!".

** ''Blues Brothers 2000'' ends with Elwood and Buster racing away from Queen Mousette's contest (leaving the rest of the band behind, playing "Mississipi Queen" with Mousette's band) while chased by a miles-long line of police cruisers. We assume that Elwood will try some crazy stunt to try to lose them eventually (his final line in the film is telling Buster to "buckle up"), but aside from that, anything goes.

* BolivianArmyEnding: By the end of the movie, the band is being chased by at least [[spoiler: the Chicago city police, the Illinois state troopers, the Chicago fire department, the Harvey Police Department, the Wauconda Police Department, Joliet Jake's jilted fiancée, a cowboy band, the owner of a western-themed club, a private detective, the FBI, a SWAT team, the Illinois National Guard, the security team at the Bank of Chicago, and every member of the US Nazi party in the tri-state area. Thankfully, it ends with them going to prison as opposed to getting killed.]] Not to mention the countless others who may not have been shown on screen.

There was a {{sequel}}, titled ''Blues Brothers 2000'' (though it was actually released in 1998). The sequel didn't go over quite as well as the original, in part because some important players, most notably Creator/JohnBelushi, had died in the interim. (The death [[RealLifeWritesThePlot was actually worked into]] [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim the film's plot]]; it didn't really help, but it was at least respectful to Belushi.) Some admit that though the plot wasn't as up to snuff as the original, the music at least was pretty good. Creator/JohnLandis helmed the director's chair on both movies.