History Film / TheBluesBrothers

* LowerClassLout: The brothers {{invoke}} this and play it to the hilt at the French restaurant while they're putting the band back together.

* FreezeFrameBonus: Three pictures of Jake with the mystery woman (with sunglasses and hat, of course), are seen when the mystery woman is doing her nails and reading the instruction manual for the flamethrower.

* MagicRealism: The car, the Blues Brothers' invulnerability, etc.

* 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 throwing the car's cigarette lighter out the window because it's broken), and then [[RampJump jump a bridge]]. All set to the tune of "She Caught the Katy".

The brothers drop in at a nearby Baptist church as they try to figure out a way to save their childhood home. While listening to the sermon from the minister (Music/JamesBrown), Jake sees the light--[[NaturalSpotlight literally]]--and has an epiphany regarding their MissionFromGod: the Blues Brothers must [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether get their band back together]] for a charity concert to raise the money to save the orphanage--''no matter what''. Along the way, they encounter such notables as Music/CabCalloway, Creator/JohnCandy, Music/RayCharles, Creator/CarrieFisher, Music/ArethaFranklin, Creator/HenryGibson, Music/JohnLeeHooker, Chaka Khan, [[CreatorCameo John Landis]], Creator/CharlesNapier, Creator/FrankOz, Creator/PaulReubens, Creator/StevenSpielberg, and Twiggy as [[HilarityEnsues hilarity duly ensues]], some damn good music gets played, and every last police car in the City of UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} is destroyed.

* ButtMonkey: The Illinois Nazis; ''all'' of them. But then, AcceptableTargets.

%%* ThoseWackyNazis: We hate them, and so do Jake and Elwood.

* AudienceParticipation: In Australia, specifically the Valhalla theater in Melbourne (until it closed down in 2003), where the audience lovingly recite the dialogue, dress up as their favorite characters, throw items such as white bread, newspaper and stuffed animals at the screen, and dance in the aisles to the movie's soundtrack. It's an awesome experience.

* FemmeFatalons: Creator/CarrieFisher.

** The name of Creator/CarrieFisher's beauty salon is "[[PunnyName Curl Up And Dye]]."

* HurricaneOfExcuses: Jake's list of excuses as to why he failed to show up to marry Creator/CarrieFisher.

* NoNameGiven: Creator/CarrieFisher's stalking killer is never referred to by name. The script refers to her as "Mystery Woman."

** After the demolition derby in the shopping mall Elwood parks the Bluesmobile in a hiding place beside an electrical power box. (Creator/JohnLandis explains that Creator/DanAykroyd thought this would show how the car gets its incredible endurance, but also goes on to explain that it never did make any sense, so the scene was cut.)

** After getting the new address of Bones Malone, Elwoods thanks Ms Tarantino before leaving.

** The "Theme from ''Series/{{Rawhide}}'' and "Stand By Your Man" numbers are slightly longer.

** 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).

* ShownTheirWork: Before performing the theme from Rawhide appease the crowd of rednecks at the bar, Willie asks "what key?" This is to make sure the band is all on the same page, something any group of seasoned musicians (which they all are in RealLife) would address first and foremost. A minor but crucial detail that most moviegoers would have overlooked.
* SiblingTeam: Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues. However, they're not biologically related - they became blood brothers while growing up together in the orphanage which the film centers around saving, and took the Blues name as adults.

** 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; as he put it, "it's just a magic car!".

* ComfortingComforter: Elwood does this for Jake in the flophouse.
* ComicallyInvincibleHero: Among other things Jake and Elwood casually dodge bullets from multiple shooters, survive a propane explosion, having an apartment complex dropped on them, and walk away from several car crashes that would probably kill a normal human. It's heavily implied to be the result of DivineIntervention.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: When meeting the state troopers outside Elwood's actual apartment building, Burton Mercer quips that he actually enjoyed Elwood's little trick of listing his address as Wrigley Field. Mercer goes on to be increasingly amused and impressed by the antics of the Blues Brothers throughout the movie, to the point where he's wryly chuckling after the squad car he and his fellows are in has been ''rammed into the side of a truck''.

* IsItAlwaysLikeThis: Upon entering Elwood's noisy apartment, Jake asks how often the train comes by. Elwood replies, "So often that you won't even notice it."

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Played for laughs. The Mystery Woman tries several different times to kill Jake. First, she shoots a rocket launcher at him while he's about to show his rental apartment to Elwood, but only manages to knock some bricks loose and break the doors and the bum sleeping in the stairway doesn't even wake up from the noise. She then uses a bomb to blow up the same building where he (and his brother) now live, bringing the whole building down on them. They just arise from the pile of bricks, brush themselves off, and continue on their "mission from God". Later on, she fires a flame thrower at them while they're in a phone booth next to a propane tank, blowing them up into the air. When they land, the phone breaks and they pick up the change spilling from its coin box. The justification (not directly stated but rather heavily implied) is that since they are on a "mission from God" they have His divine protection too.

** A few extra lines of dialog when Elwood and Jake rest in his apartment.

* DreamTeam: The Blues Brothers band in-universe.

* FriendlyEnemy: Burton Mercer seems honestly amused by Jake and Elwood's ability to trick the police; he even insists on waiting to arrest them until he's heard them play. Hell, even when he ends up with his car embedded in the back of a semi near the end, he doesn't seem the least bit angry about it.

** As Jake and Elwood sneak into the show, Elwood takes the chemicals that he stole from the show and sneaks them into the tires of the cop cars.

** When Jake and Elwood sneak out, the gas in the cop cars tires reacts and causes the tires to explode on some to delay the police.

* InspirationalSermon: After learning that the Catholic orphanage where they grew up is going to be torn down due to it being deeply in tax debt, Jake and Elwood go to the Triple Rock Baptist Church while contemplating what to do about the situation. While there, Reverend Cleophus James (played by an AdamWesting version of Music/JamesBrown) gives a passionate sermon that's so powerful that a beam of light shines down from Heaven and inspires Jake to [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether reunite his old bandmates]] and hold a benefit concert for the orphanage.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Assuming it was a really high-end microphone, Elwood's swapping the original Bluesmobile for one was not automatically a bad deal.

* GratuitousNazis: On their quest, the boys just happen to run into Illinois Nazis. However, this is really a case of [[RippedfromtheHeadlines Ripped from the Headlines]].

* GratuitousNazis: On their quest, the boys just happen to run into Illinois Nazis. However, this is really a case of [[Ripped from the Headlines]].