Plot info:
"Joliet Jake" Blues is released from Joliet Prison into his brother Elwood's custody after serving a sentence for armed robbery. Jake is irritated at being picked up in a battered former police car instead of the Cadillac the brothers used to own, but is mollified when Elwood demonstrates the "new" Bluesmobile's powers by vaulting it over an open drawbridge.
Over Jake's protests, they visit their childhood home, a Roman Catholic orphanage. They learn the institution will be shut down unless $5,000 in property taxes can be paid. Jake indicates they can quickly obtain the funds, but the orphanage director, a nun known as "The Penguin", emphatically refuses to accept any stolen money from the brothers. She drives them out, and tells them not to return until they have redeemed themselves. At the prompting of Curtis, the elderly orphanage worker who introduced the duo to the blues, the brothers visit a lively evangelical church service where Jake has an epiphany: they can legitimately raise the funds by re-forming their legendary rhythm and blues band.
As they drive home, Elwood's driving attracts the attention of two Illinois State Police troopers named Daniels and Mount. Elwood proceeds to both escape and earn the officers' undying enmity by driving through a shopping mall. Arriving at the flophouse which Elwood calls home, the brothers also suffer a bazooka attack launched by a "Mystery Woman"; she reappears at regular intervals throughout the rest of the film to launch more equally-unsuccessful assaults.
The brothers begin tracking down members of the band. The core rhythm section of the group is found playing in an empty Holiday Inn lounge, and is fairly easily convinced to rejoin. Trumpet player "Mr. Fabulous", now maître d' at a high-class French restaurant, is harder to sway, but Jake and Elwood gleefully proceed to make a ghastly spectacle of themselves, swilling the restaurant's food and drink and harassing the other patrons. When they threaten to repeat this performance at every meal, Mr. Fabulous gives in.
En route to meet guitar player Matt Murphy and sax player Lou Marini, the brothers disrupt the neo-Nazi rally of the American Socialist White People's Party ("The Illinois Nazis"), adding another bitter enemy to the brothers' rapidly-growing list. Murphy and Marini are at the soul food restaurant which Matt owns with his wife. Against her emphatic advice, Matt and Lou walk out and rejoin the band. The reunited group obtains instruments and equipment from a pawn shop, Ray's Music Exchange.
Jake leads the skeptical band out into the countryside and stumbles into a gig at Bob's Country Bunker, a bar which features both country and western music. After a rocky start, the band wins over the bottle-tossing crowd with the theme from Rawhide and "Stand By Your Man". At the end of the evening, however, not only is their bar tab greater than the pay for the gig, the band that was actually meant to play turns up: a Nashville group called the Good Ol' Boys. Jake and Elwood escape the Good Ol' Boys and Bob thanks to the fortuitous reappearence of Daniels and Mount.
The Blues Brothers blackmail their booking agent friend Maury Sline to land their big gig – a performance at the Palace Hotel Ballroom, located 106 miles north of Chicago. After being driven all over the area promoting the concert, the Bluesmobile runs out of gas, making Jake and Elwood very late. The ballroom is packed, the concert-goers being joined by the Good Ol' Boys, troopers Daniel and Mount and scores of other police officers. To settle the crowd, Curtis appears and performs a magical version of "Minnie the Moocher" with the band. Jake and Elwood finally sneak into the venue and perform two songs. With the help of a record executive, they receive the money they need and slip through the police cordon.
As the brothers escape via some grimy service tunnels, they are confronted one last time by the Mystery Woman, whereupon it is revealed she is Jake's brutally-jilted ex-fiancée. She threatens them with an M16 rifle, but Jake charms her, kisses her, then unceremoniously drops her in the mud, allowing the two brothers to escape to the Bluesmobile. They hit the road back to Chicago with the entire "Illinois law enforcement community", the Good Ol' Boys and the Illinois Nazis all in close pursuit. The brothers eventually elude them all, leaving massive pileups of cars in their wake.
Jake and Elwood arrive at the Richard J. Daley Center, where the Bluesmobile literally falls to pieces. Finding the office of the Cook County Assessor, they discover a sign saying "Back in 5 minutes". As they wait, the building is stormed by hundreds of police, firefighters, and Illinois National Guardsmen. An assessor clerk finally appears, and the brothers pay the tax bill. Just as their receipt is stamped, handcuffs go on their wrists and they turn to face a sea of armed law officers. As the film ends, Jake, Elwood and the rest of the band are back in prison, where they play "Jailhouse Rock" for their fellow inmates.
Great Movies
Home