The Blues Brothers

Jake Blues is released after three years of a five-year sentence for armed robbery. Elwood picks him up in a battered former police car and demonstrates its odd driving capabilities by jumping an open drawbridge.

The Blues Brothers visit the Catholic orphanage where they were raised and learn it could be closed unless $5,000 in property taxes is paid. The financial crisis becomes the catalyst for their plan to reform the band and raise the money by reuniting the Blues Brothers.

They attend Reverend Cleophus James's sermon at Triple Rock Baptist Church and experience an epiphany: they can reform the Blues Brothers and raise the funds needed to save the orphanage. This realization sets the rest of the plan in motion.

State troopers attempt to arrest Elwood for driving with a suspended license due to hundreds of tickets. The brothers escape with a high-speed car chase through the Dixie Square Mall.

A mysterious woman fires a rocket launcher at the brothers at their flophouse, but the shot misses. The next morning, she detonates a bomb that destroys the building, yet Jake and Elwood are unharmed and avoid arrest.

Jake and Elwood locate five of their former band members performing as Murph and the Magic Tones at a deserted Holiday Inn lounge. The brothers reassert themselves by dining with poor manners, coaxing the trumpeter Mr. Fabulous to rejoin. With the lineup reassembled, they begin arranging instruments and rehearsals.

On the way to meet the final two members, an American Nazi Party demonstration blocks a Chicago bridge in Jackson Park. Elwood drives the demonstrators off the bridge into the East Lagoon, and the Nazis vow revenge.

They locate Matt Guitar Murphy, now running a soul-food restaurant with his wife and Blue Lou Marini. Although his wife advises against rejoining, the brothers press on and obtain instruments and gear from Ray's Music Exchange in Calumet City, with Ray accepting an IOU.

As Jake attempts to book a gig, the mysterious woman bombs his phone booth, leaving him miraculously unharmed again. The incident underscores the danger surrounding the brothers as they push toward the next major show.

The brothers perform at Bob's Country Bunker in Kokomo, Indiana, impersonating the booked act. They win over the rowdy crowd but rack up a huge bar tab and anger the real band, the Good Ole Boys.

To raise the crucial funds, they book the Palace Hotel Ballroom north of Chicago and publicize the event citywide. The packed show features two songs as the tax deadline looms, and a record executive offers a $10,000 cash advance on a recording contract, hinting at the path to paying the taxes and IOU.

After the performance, they slip out through a service tunnel while authorities close in. The mystery woman—Jake's vengeful ex-fiancée—follows and fires an M16 rifle; the bullets miss, and she appears drawn to Jake, allowing the brothers to escape.

Chased by police, the Good Ole Boys, and the Neo-Nazis, the brothers perform a series of improbable escapes back toward Chicago. They reach City Hall and pay the Cook County tax bill at the assessor's office, but are immediately seized by a mob of law officers.

In Joliet Prison, the Blues Brothers perform Jailhouse Rock for the inmates, giving the band a final, defiant moment before the credits roll.