The Blues Brothers

Corrected entry: In the scene where the band is visiting Ray's music shop to buy some equipment, there is a dancing scene. In one of the scenes that show Jake and Elwood dancing, there is a rather large, black box just popping out of nowhere. If you play it slow, you can see that that single part was cut together from two different shots.

Correction: I have watched this scene several times looking for this. The only black box I can see in this scene is the bottom of Ray's Rhodes piano. It's the model known as the "suitcase" piano, which has an amplifier and speakers in the bottom, as opposed to the "stage" model which had chrome-plated legs and was open underneath. The Stage piano had neither amplifier nor speakers onboard.

Corrected entry: After their performance at the Palace Hotel Ballroom, Elwood announces "It's 106 miles to Chicago..." They speed the entire way to Chicago. This should only take a maximum of two hours. When they arrive at the office building, it is well into the morning.

Correction: It probably would take a maximum of 2 hours to drive 106 miles to Chicago if Jake and Elwood take the fastest route there. However, with the entire Illinois state police force after them, it's reasonable to assume that numerous roadblocks would have forced them to take a much longer route instead.

Corrected entry: When the Good Ol' Boys chase Jake and Elwood, they start out of the bar parking lot in a full sized RV, but when they wreck shortly thereafter, it's a pickup truck with a camper. (01:28:55 - 01:29:45)

Correction: The Good Ol' Boys' full-sized Winnebago RV is never used in the first chase; the pickup-camper belongs to Bob - seen near him before the chase. The band and Bob are seen in the pickup camper during the chase, while the full-sized one is seen in the second chase.

Corrected entry: The street Cortland doesn't go "northbound," as the black cop said he was traveling on. It's an E-W street.

Correction: This scene was shot in Park Ridge, IL, where their Courtland Avenue runs N-S.

Corrected entry: When the band performs at Bob's Country Bunker, they travel in 2 cars carrying 5 people each. When Jake and Elwood tell the guys to go ahead and leave, they would have to fit 8 people plus all of the equipment in one car.

Correction: That's an ongoing joke in both this film and the sequel. It is featured most prominently in "Blues Brothers 2000," where you actually get to see the interior of the car with the entire band crammed inside.

Twotall

Corrected entry: When Jake and Elwood first walk through the lobby of the flophouse, an older man asks Elwood for his "Cheez Whiz"; Elwood then tosses him a metallic can of an aerosol cheese product. Cheez Whiz is a processed cheese spread that is sold, and always has been sold, in glass jars.

Correction: Though Cheez Whiz is a spread, the name has come to encompass any aerosol cheese products. Similar to how Band-Aid refers to any adhesive bandage products.

MasterOfAll

I disagree, Easy Cheese is the aerosol product. The words "Cheez Whiz", do make for a snappier script line, but are incorrect based on what he tosses over. If you walk into a grocery store and ask for Cheez Whiz, you will be shown a glass jar of cheese product spread. I truly believe your correction is incorrect.

Well the guy asking for the cheese isn't exactly a formal guy. To him that can is cheese wiz.

Yes what he tosses him is not the brand name cheeze whiz, but that does not matter. Aerosol cheese, somehow, became called cheeze whiz. If I ask you for a band-aid, are you going to go to the store to buy band-aid adhesive bandages, or are you going to the medicine cabinet and giving me the generic bozo brand?

MasterOfAll

Cheez Whiz also comes in a "spray" can, not just a jar.

There are internet pictures of Cheez Whiz in a can, and even if it's available today, it certainly was never available in a spray can in 1980 or before.

Bishop73

Cheez Whiz was never a generic term for any cheese in a can product, and certainly not in the 70's and 80's. Not only that, you can tell it's a can of Easy Cheese. Here's an article people can read to decide if this is a valid mistake. https://www.liveabout.com/blues-brothers-cheez-whiz-3974417.

Bishop73

Corrected entry: At Bob's Country Bunker, Bob said that the band had consumed $300 worth of beer. Estimating $2 for a bottle of beer, this would mean the group of 10 men drank 150 beers among them - more than enough to get them seriously drunk. Despite this, everyone seemed to be completely sober during their after-show conversation in the parking lot.

Correction: It's a joke the filmmakers inserted in this scene. It is consistent with other exaggerated and "impossible" scenes in the movie showing how tough the main characters are; they are shot at with a flamethrower without bothering to notice, sleep through the demolition of the building they are in, duck missiles and keep on walking, etc. Not to mention the incredible "backflip" they manage with their car.

Twotall

Correction: Depending on what bar you go to, beer prices can vary widely. Bars can charge whatever they want. Even in 1980, I know there were bars that charged four dollars for a single beer, on draft or in bottle, and strip clubs charged up to seven dollars per beer (and the manager could change prices at will). I mean, there's a good chance that Bob was deliberately overcharging the Blues Brothers Band just to get out of paying them, which seems likely.

Charles Austin Miller

Corrected entry: The man who sold Jake his stuff says "One Timex digital watch, broken." If it's broken, how did Jake know the time when he and Elwood were at the gas station?

Correction: 1) The man in question did not "sell" Jake his stuff; he was a prison guard who gave back to Jake the things he had with him when he arrived at Joliet. 2) The "broken" part of the watch could refer to the watch crystal, not the actual ability to tell time. 3) Several days pass between the two scenes - plenty of time to buy a new watch.

Corrected entry: At Bob's Country Bunker, the Blues Brothers notice chicken wire between them and the audience. So how is it possible for Jake to be able to whip items out of audience members' hands during the playing of "Rawhide"? (01:06:10 - 01:09:20)

mightymick

Correction: He never whips anything out of anybody's hand. Only a cigarette from a girl who is obviously standing backstage at Bob's, by the stage curtain.

Corrected entry: At the beginning of the big chase, the Good Ol' Boys are driving a long Winnebago. When their driver says he has a problem, we see their view as they weave through the surrounding police cars. There is no way a vehicle that long could weave through cars that close at such a high rate of speed without colliding with any of them. (01:43:25)

mightymick

Correction: And yet, all of the movie's stunts were real - no CGI involved. Evidently, if they weaved through the cars without hitting them, it actually happened.

rswarrior

Corrected entry: At their performance 106 miles north of Chicago, the brothers acknowledge the presence of Illinois law enforcement officers. At 106 miles north of Chicago, the place would be well into Wisconsin.

Correction: Yes, but seeing how eager the police authorities are in capturing the Blues Brothers (approving the use of unnecessary violence, for instance), they would not likely be very concerned about jurisdiction issues either.

Twotall

Corrected entry: On the movie's home video cover, when Jake is resting his hand on Elwood's shoulder, his tattooed name is on his right hand. But in the very beginning of the movie, when Jake is waiting to collect his things from the man at the corrections office, he is tapping his fingers on the counter and his tattooed name is on his left hand.

Correction: Cover artwork is not part of the film, and not a valid mistake.

johnrosa

Corrected entry: In the pursuit scene, the Blues Brothers are coming out from one tunnel, and they are about to crash into a police car. After they intercept it, the police cars are hitting it and there is no driver inside.

Correction: The car was parked there as a road block, then the driver got out in case the car gets rammed. Normal safety procedure.

johnrosa

Corrected entry: Near the end of the movie when Jake and Elwood are getting ready to walk out on stage, you can see Jake start to spin the chain in his right hand. When they walk out you get a quick shot of him with it still in his right hand. Then when you see him again, he has it spinning in his left hand.

Correction: He had time to switch hands between those two shots. Just because you don't see it happen, doesn't mean it can't.

Corrected entry: When Carrie Fisher uses the flame thrower to blow up the propane tank next to the phone booth Jake and Elwood are in, there is no way the phone booth would have rocketed straight up because phone booths are bolted down to prevent theft.

Leonard Hassen

Correction: Besides, they're on a mission from God. That's how they survive all these ridiculous attacks.

Brian Katcher

Correction: The bolts are proof against theft, not against large scale explosions.

Corrected entry: When Jake and Elwood visit the Penguin and Jake gets thrown down the stairs and the door slams, you can see the "ceiling", go in and out because it is actually a piece of canvas.

Correction: Given the horrible condition the building is in (and the neighborhood around it) it would be safe to possibly assume that the canvas was a "temporary fix" of sorts, perhaps to catch crumbling plaster from the ceiling.

Correction: There is a fifth barrel in the center of the launcher.

Corrected entry: The sign "Chicago city limits" is facing across the street instead of parallel to it, as city limit signs always are. (02:03:20)

Correction: That's how the signs were in Chicago back then.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Jake and Elwood go to the Chez Paul restaurant to find Mr. Fabulous, he looks up, the shot changes to a close up, and he looks up again. (00:49:25)

Correction: He could have done a double take between shots, but even if he didn't, it's a common filmmaking technique to show a single action more than once from different angles.

Corrected entry: When the Blues Brothers are racing to the tax assessor's office towards the end, there is a quick shot of the speedometer of the Bluesmobile. Right when they cut to it, you hear dubbed engine sounds and a manual transmission up-shift. The Bluesmobile had an automatic transmission.

Correction: The kind of transmission makes no difference to the engine noise - the clutch is still engaged on an automatic, and the gears STILL change.

Andy Benham

More mistakes in The Blues Brothers

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: Hit it.

More quotes from The Blues Brothers

Trivia: This movie set a long-standing Guinness World Record for the largest number of automobiles ever destroyed in a movie, 104, including 60 refurbished and reinforced police cars wrecked (most beyond repair) in the various chase scenes. This record held until the belated sequel, "Blues Brothers 2000," (1998) deliberately set the new record by wrecking one additional automobile for a total of 105.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: It possibly depends on what one counts as "destroyed." Sources suggest there were 104 cars destroyed in BB, with 105 in BB2000. The record has been broken several times since and now stands at 532. It'd be great to see evidence of the numbers for verification. whatculture.com/film/20-things-you-didn't-know-about-the-blues-brothers?page=12 www.startrescue.co.uk/news/top-10/the-10-films-that-destroyed-the-most-cars.

The trivia entry is mostly correct and doesn't need a correction. Just a word change to make it accurate. "Blues Brothers" (1980) did hold the record. 60 police cars were wrecked, but so were an additional 43 cars for a total of 103. "Blues Brothers 2000" beat their own record by 1 car. It seems person who made the entry found on the internet that "Blues Brothers" wrecked 60 cop cars and thought that was the record and assumed 61 was the new record.

Bishop73

More trivia for The Blues Brothers

Question: Did John Belushi do all the dancing, especially the turnovers in church, by himself or was it a double?

Answer: It was a double, and the "making of" documentary on the DVD shows this.

David Mercier

To be fair, John did do a lot of flips and dancing as Jake; just not all of them in the movie.

More questions & answers from The Blues Brothers

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