Goofs

Five rockets are fired from a four-tube rocket launcher.

Shortly after Elwood says, "It's 106 miles to Chicago.", the Chic Lady is shown waiting for Elwood at the motel, so it must be shortly after midnight. When the brothers get to Chicago, it's daylight. Traveling 106 miles in the Bluesmobile, it still should have been dark.

After the Bluesmobile "throws a rod", the windshield is covered in grime, but shortly thereafter, as the car approaches Daley Plaza, Jake's side of the windshield is perfectly clean.

Time flies. The brothers leave the big show in early evening, based on the number of songs played. At that time Twiggy appears to realize she's been stood up for her midnight rendezvous with Elwood, meaning it's after midnight. After driving 106 miles at high speed they reach Chicago at dawn, which is around 6:00am daylight saving time (depending on time of year, which is unclear). They get to Daley Plaza during business hours. The Assessor comes back from a 5 minute break with a sandwich, suggesting it's lunch time. More than 12 hours have elapsed for actions that should take less than 2 hours.

When the Blues Brothers are driving around promoting their "Rhythm and Blues Review," the scenes are all obviously filmed during the summer and the trees have full leaf cover. They even drive through a beach full of swimmers in bathing suits. Once they run out of gas and pull up at the gas station, however, the season has changed. There are no leaves on the trees.

Church properties in Illinois cannot be taxed.

When Carrie Fisher fires five "rockets" from a shoulder-fired launcher that contains only 4 rounds, the launcher is entirely within the passenger compartment with the rear pointed toward the windshield. The 16-meter back blast from such a launcher would have blown the windshield and possibly the rest of the windows out, possibly ruptured the roof, and set the interior of the automobile and the 'Mystery Woman' portrayed by Ms. Fisher on fire.

During the end Jail House Rock scene, every guard is carrying a shotgun. In real prisons, guards do not carry guns due to the fact that if the prisoners riot, they would then be armed.

As the SWAT Team, National Guard, and police officers converge on the tax assessor's office to capture Jake and Elwood, they open fire on the doors to get through the barricades set up. n reality, they would not shoot blindly through the doors due to the possibility of shooting innocent persons on the other side, which could result in criminal charges and lawsuits against the agency and officers involved.

Jake and Elwood pay the orphanage's real estate taxes at the assessor's office. In Cook County, real estate taxes are paid at the treasurer's office, not the assessor's office.

Lake Wasapamanni is 106 miles north of Chicago, placing it in Wisconsin, yet Illinois state troopers show up. But considering the attitude of the Illinois police in the film to personal rights ("Use of unnecessary violence in the apprehension of The Blues Brothers has been approved"), they wouldn't be likely to care about jurisdiction either. Later, the Illinois State Police follow them to Kokomo, Indiana, for the same reason.

(at around 1h 22 mins) At the Bob's Country Bunker gig, Jake introduces "Stand By Your Man" by saying it's a favorite of the horn section. The horn section doesn't play in the song,.... and that is why it's a favorite - they DON'T have to play.

The PA speaker the Blues Brothers use for announcing their concert is shown to be an outdoor warning siren taken from a children's play area. While these air powered sirens are typically not capable of audio reproduction, the companion book that came out with the movie explains that Donald "Duck" Dunn rewired the siren so that it would work as a P.A.

No way all the band members and their instruments (including drums) would fit in the 2 cars they get around in. However, trunks in those cars are pretty big; additionally, one of the IMDB guidelines for "Unacceptable Goofs" states, "Nitpicking: It's not the viewer's job to pick apart movies and find fault with them. Allow room for artistic license."

Backstage at the Palace Hotel concert, Curtis and the band prepare for "Minnie the Moocher." When the curtain rises moments later, the stage is significantly different, the band members' outfits have changed, and Curtis's suit has changed from black to white. This is a fantasy sequence, representing how Curtis feels performing before a live audience.

When the Blues Brothers drive through the grocery store, customers and employees are seen running towards the camera, turning left (their right) off camera to avoid the oncoming car. The last person - an employee - actually bumps into the camera before turning, jarring the camera.

During the crowd's stony silence after Jake and Elwood's debut at the concert, an extra in the audience can clearly be seen making a face at the camera.

When the Bluesmobile crashes through the guard rail (after Elwood says "I gotta pull over"), the rail breaks apart as if it were made of plywood rather than steel.

The Good Ol' Boys are in a pickup with a camper topper that's hit by a police car and both vehicles roll over. A short length of pole called a kicker is fired out a tube through the floorboard to flip over a vehicle. The smoke from the charge that fired the police car's kicker is visible throughout the overhead shot. The kicker itself can be seen rolling across the road and bouncing off the curb (watch the curb at screen top center). Once the bottom of the pickup is in view, its kicker tube is obvious behind the passenger-side front wheel well.

In the downtown Chicago chase scene near the end, there is a visible wooden ramp during a police car pileup.

When the Blues Brothers and their band are driving to Bob's Country Bunker, there's so many men and so much equipment that Mr. Fabulous, "Bones" Malone, and Murphy have to ride in the back of the Bluesmobile instead of Murph and the Magic Tones' purple Cadillac. Yet when the band is leaving, the entire band and all of their equipment inexplicably fit into the Cadillac while Jake and Elwood are running from Bob and The Good ol' Boys.

In a packed country bar circa 1980, only one person is smoking (the dark-haired woman in front of whom Jake cracks a whip).

While playing at Bob's Country Bunker, the beer bottles on the piano and amplifiers change in between shots. One shot has bottles of Budweiser and Olympia beer while the next has bottles of Miller, Miller Lite, or Schlitz.

At the end of the concert, the President of Clarion Records says that he was a bouncer "back in the seventies". The movie was released in 1980, so the seventies would not be that long before.

In his transient hotel room, Elwood plays a Decca record on his phonograph. The song we hear is Let The Good Times Roll by Louis Jordan (1946), but the label on the record indicates that it is instead Saturday Night Fish Fry, also by Louis Jordan (1949).

During "Sweet Home Chicago", there is the sound of a baritone sax solo, but no one on stage is playing a baritone sax.(Tom Scott played bari for the BB band on SNL, but did not appear in this movie)

When the band is playing in Ray's Music Exchange, and also at big gig at the end, we can clearly hear the drums and cymbals crashing, but the drummer is faking his movements; the cymbals do not move, nor does the drummer actually make contact with the drums with his drumsticks.

During the big concert, when the camera cuts to views from the audience several times quickly, the claps are not cued correctly in some of the shots, so that the people are clapping on the downbeat and the sound of the claps comes on the off-beat.

During one of the verses in "Sweet Home Chicago," Elwood's backing vocals are heard, even though he is on the stage catwalk dancing.

During the downtown Chicago chase scene, the shadow of the camera can be seen on the hood of the Blues Brothers' car in two adjacent shots.

During the chase scene in the mall, a police car flips over and the ramp used to flip it is clearly visible.

During a wide shot of Jake and Elwood standing at the back of the Triple Rock Baptist Church, a crew member runs across the background.

When Jake and Elwood go to Mrs. Tarantino's home to inquire about Tom "Bones" Malone and "Blue" Lou Marini, the boom is reflected in the glass door.

In the final chase with the Illinois Nazis, the Blues-Mobile is flipped upside down. A piece of equipment (evidently to push up the front of the car) can be seen rising from the street and flipping hood of the car backwards.

Ohio's distinctive double pennant state flag is visible in front of the Palace Hotel.

During the final chase scene, state troopers indicate that Elwood and Jake are heading into Illinois on "highway 47" toward Chicago, which is shown to be a four-lane highway. Illinois 47 is a two-lane highway which ends at least 25 miles south of the Wisconsin state line.

When returning to Chicago from Wisconsin, Jake and Elwood approach the city from the south, entering Lake Shore Drive from McCormick Place, when in reality, they should have approached the city from the north, as the police officer had stated earlier that the brothers were southbound. Jake and Elwood ultimately would have had to drive through the city to reach that location, short of driving west by dozens of miles to bypass it.

Ray's Music Exchange is clearly located in the city of Chicago, with an elevated train platform in the street during the "Shake a Tail Feather" dance number (the location is actually Shelly's Loan and Jewelry at 300 E. 47th St.). Yet the Brothers ask the Clarion Records president to pay part of their advance to "Ray's Music Exchange in Calumet City," which has no el service.

In the first car chase, it is said Jake and Elwood are traveling southbound on IL 47, but the highway looks more like 1-90 because it is a divided highway and there is a frontage road (when Elwood says "Jake, I have to pull over!").

[1:26:41]When the Good Old Boys arrive at Bob's Country Bunker, it is clearly after closing time. No explanation is given as to why they are so late, and they would realize that the bar is now closed and would not expect to play their set.

By the time the Illinois Nazi Party member tells his friend to get the Bluesmobile's license plate number, it's already long gone, but he gets the number anyway.

When the Brothers ask where the tax assessor's office is, they're told by the desk officer to go to the end of the hall, turn right, and take the elevator to the eleventh floor. When the police officer asks if the Brothers have come in, all the desk officer says is he sent them to the end of the hall without saying what floor. Yet all of the officers and soldiers end up going to the eleventh floor anyway.

The Penguin sends Jake & Elwood "on a mission from God" to pay the property taxes for the Catholic orphanage where they were raised. But religious organizations in Cook County are not required to pay property taxes on their property.

The penguin tells Jake & Elwood that the church won't pay the taxes because they want to sell the property. But if the owner (church) doesn't pay property tax, the state sells the property to recoup the taxes. The original owner has a limited time to repay the new owner & reclaim the property. So if the church didn't pay the taxes, it also would lose the ability to sell the property. By paying the taxes on-time, Jake & Elwood enable the church to sell the property. If they wanted to protect the property from the church, they should have kept the concert money and bid on it at the tax auction.

Jake is obviously illiterate. He signs for his belongings at Joliet by drawing an X. At Mrs. Tarantino's house, he calls her "Mrs. Toronto" even though her name is spelled in label tape on her buzzer. When Mrs. Tarantino hands Jake the business card for Murph and the Magictones, he merely passes it to Elwood. Yet Jake clearly reads the sign outside Bob's Country Bunker even though he's only pretending to have set up the gig there.

When they're staying in an apartment building by the trains, the trains pass by their window but when it cuts to a wide shot outside, the trains pass a floor below.

During their performance of "Sweet Home Chicago," Elwood points out Burton Mercer (the probation officer) to Jake in the crowd. Jake and Elwood never really interacted with Mercer previously in the movie, so it seems odd that Jake or Elwood would recognize him in the crowd.

During Aretha Franklin's "Think" number, the backup singer in the postal uniform continues to lip-sync the word "Freedom", when that part of the backup vocal is over, and makes an obvious mid-word stop upon realizing her mistake.

Just before they enter the big concert, Ellwood and Jake sneak in by breaking the window of the women's restroom and entering. The bathroom is occupied by several women who scream at the sight of the Blues brothers, yet not one of them had reacted just seconds earlier to the sound of their window being shattered, even though one occupied stall was only about four feet away from it.