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.
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.
Trivia: The Cook County collector is played by Steven Spielberg.
Trivia: The mall the Blues Brothers drove through is the old Dixie Square mall in Harvey Illinois. The 800,000 square foot shopping center had been abandoned in 1979 and was renovated specially for the chase sequence. The mall remained unused since filming was completed and was demolished in 2012.
Trivia: Right after the first police car pileup in the mall, a police office says, "He broke my watch." If you listen carefully, right after every police car pileup thereafter you can hear a police office yell, "He broke my watch." The actor who improvised the line, billed as "Charming Trooper," was singer/songwriter Stephen Bishop.
Trivia: Little Richard was asked to appear and perform in the film; he declined because at the time the film was made, he was only performing gospel music, as opposed to the secular music from his early career.
Trivia: The Nazi group is called the "American Socialist White Peoples Party." ASWPP. Or when pronounced..."Ass Wipe"
Trivia: Notice the Graffiti on the Bridge the Blues Brothers use to hide the car. One of them is *John (heart) Debbie*. This is a reference to the Director, John Landis, and his wife Deborah.
Trivia: When the Blues Brothers sing "Jailhouse Rock," there are several shots of a long-haired prisoner who eventually leaps onto the table to dance. The performer is Joe Walsh, guitar player for The Eagles.
Trivia: Several "Bluesmobiles" were created for the film; a crew member drove one over 100 miles west to Spring Valley, Illinois. He was arrested because the vehicle's license plate was a fake; when contacted by the police, the filmmakers in Chicago were more concerned with recovering the vehicle than bailing out the driver.
Trivia: John Wayne's son Ethan Wayne was a stunt driver on the film.
