Summaries

Synopsis

Eighteen years after the events of the original Blues Brothers movie, Elwood Blues is released from prison. He patiently stands by the road, waiting for Jake to pick him up, but Jake never comes. After Elwood waits a whole day, the warden notices him and informs him that Jake died while Elwood was in prison. Instead, a woman named Matara comes to pick up Elwood. Matara works for the Blues Brothers' former drummer Willie, who is now the owner of a strip club. Willie is happy to see his old friend free again and offers him a job as a house musician, but refuses when Elwood asks him if he is interested in reuniting the band.

Elwood goes to visit the "penguin", Sister Mary, who now works in a hospital. She tells him that the old orphanage has closed, and that Curtis, the orphanage's custodian and father figure to Jake and Elwood, has died. Elwood wallows in self-pity, now knowing he has no family left, no past, no future, nothing. Sister Mary is having none of it, though. She tells Elwood that Curtis had an affair with a married woman and sired an illegitimate son, so Elwood still has, in a way, a foster brother. However, she says this man knows nothing of his real father and advises Elwood against contacting him. She also introduces Elwood to Buster, a 10-year-old troubled orphan, and suggests that he be his mentor. Neither Elwood nor Buster are enthusiastic about the idea.

Elwood visits a used car lot and spots a former police car, this one a black and white Ford Crown Victoria. The owner, Melvin Gasperon, asks five hundred dollars for the car. Elwood, with Buster accompanying him, goes looking for his foster brother, against Sister Mary's advice, hoping he will lend him the money. Elwood finds the man, Cabel Chamberlain, to be a commander in the Illinois State Police. He tells Cabel about Curtis, offending him. He also asks him for a loan and asks if he is interested in joining his band. Cabel calls his mother to ask her about Curtis, and she is taken by surprise and does not deny it. Cabel, upset by the news about his real father and outraged by the requests made by Elwood with his long criminal record, throws Elwood out of his office. Outside the building, Buster steals Cabel's wallet. Elwood returns the wallet, but keeps the cash it contained. While Cabel files papers to have Elwood arrested for the theft, Elwood returns to Melvin's car lot to buy the car, which is to become the new Bluesmobile. Melvin says he's moving to New Orleans, and the two men wish each other well.

At Willie's strip club, Elwood notices Russian mobsters picking up "protection" money. He remarks to Willie later that this is not right. Willie sympathizes, but does not dare challenge the mobsters. One night, when Willie is not at the club, Elwood and the bartender Mac get the Russian mobsters falling down drunk, then steal their clothes and leave them bound and gagged in an alley with a note warning them to stop shaking down Willie. When the mobsters are reunited with the rest of their gang, they vow to destroy the strip club in retaliation for the slight.

Another night, Elwood invites Mac on stage with him, to Willie's mild chagrin, but Mac proves to be a talented singer. At that moment, several members of the Russian mob show up with machine guns and order everyone out of the building. They then shoot up the place and set it on fire. Elwood, with Buster still in tow, escapes along with Mac and Willie through a rear window. As they climb into the Bluesmobile, one of the mobsters recognizes Elwood, and they chase him in another car with their machine guns. Mac drops some nails out the window, puncturing the Russians' tires and causing their car to crash. Willie has now lost his livelihood, and agrees to play music with Elwood.

Elwood goes to look for the rest of the band members. Mac and Buster, now with suits like Elwood's, come along for the ride. They locate Matt, the guitarist, and Blue Lou at Matt's Mercedes dealership. This time, Matt's wife approves, if somewhat grudgingly, of Matt and Lou rejoining the band. They find Murph at a call center, and three other members working at a radio station, and they readily agree to rejoin the band. The last member is Mr. Fabulous, now a funeral director. They find him in a cemetery, holding a funeral for one of the Russians. Mr. Fabulous initially resists rejoining the band, but Elwood and Mac loudly make remarks that make the Russian mobsters think that he is planning to rob the grave. The Russians draw their guns, and Mr. Fabulous flees with the rest of the band members.

With all surviving members reunited, plus Mac and Buster, the band goes to see their former booking agent, Maury Sline. Maury suggests they enter an upcoming Battle of the Bands contest in New Orleans, and sets up a gig for them to play on the way there, at a county fair in Cynthiana, Kentucky. In the Bluesmobile and an additional car, the band leaves Chicago. Meanwhile, no one at Sister Mary's hospital has seen Elwood or Buster for a week, and they start to think Elwood has kidnapped Buster. They go to the police, and the FBI gets involved. Elwood's description gets passed to police agencies in neighboring states.

The band stops for dinner at Bob's Country Kitchen (the former Bob's Country Bunker) in Kokomo, Indiana. A trooper with the Indiana State Police happens to spot the car there. The police enter to arrest Elwood, but he is able to create a diversion and escape with Mac and Buster. The rest of the band shrugs off Elwood's antics, but they quickly leave when Bob starts to recognize them from their stunt in the original movie. Gradually, Elwood and Buster begin to warm up to each other.

Elwood is able to elude the policemen that night, but the police set up a massive roadblock at a bridge over the Ohio River the next day, where Elwood would have to cross to get to Kentucky. Elwood sees the police, and drives the Bluesmobile straight through the river, as if it was a submarine. When they reach the Kentucky side, they interrupt a meeting of a redneck militia group and accidentally destroy their boat, which was filled with explosives.

The police are looking for Elwood's car in Cynthiana, so they paint it white before arriving at the county fair. The rest of the band, in the other car, arrives before Elwood's car and only then discover that they are expected to play not blues, but bluegrass. Unseen by either the band or the police, one of the Russian mobsters also comes to the fair and climbs a scaffold, intending to shoot Elwood from it. Elwood, seeing all the policemen, invites the spectators to come out of the bleachers and crowd the stage, which hinders the police. The band begins playing "Ghost Rider", to the delight of the spectators. While they are playing, a heavy thunderstorm arrives over Cynthiana. The wind knocks over tents, the sudden driving rain interferes with the Russian mobster trying to aim his gun and washes the hastily applied white paint from the Bluesmobile. Buster grabs a harmonica and plays, and for the first time, Elwood is impressed with him. However, the police are still moving in, so Elwood uses a remote control to guide the Bluesmobile to the stage. As soon as they are done playing, they cram into the car and flee, abandoning their instruments. Lightning strikes the Russian mobster's scaffold, ending any chance he had to shoot Elwood.

The band continues south, but they run out of gas somewhere in Mississippi. Some of the band members walk toward the nearest town, and find a tent revival meeting, where Reverend Cleophus James, from Chicago, will be preaching. Elwood knows Cleophus and hopes to ask him for gas money, so they sit down for the service. Meanwhile, one of the other band members goes in a different direction and is able to obtain gas by himself. The police catch up to the band at the tent, Cabel Chamberlain among them, intending to arrest Elwood. Cleophus's music causes Cabel to have a religious awakening; the music is in his blood. He decides to join the band rather than arrest them. The other policemen think Cabel has been brainwashed somehow.

The remaining band member brings the freshly gassed Bluesmobile to pick up the rest of the group. Dozens of police cars from at least four states chase them. At a road construction site, Elwood jumps over some heavy equipment in the Bluesmobile, but the pursuing police cars crash into it, allowing the band to escape.

The band finally arrives in New Orleans, and goes to the mansion of Queen Mousette to audition for the Battle of the Bands. Queen Mousette was reputed to be ancient, ugly, and cannibalistic, but the band discovers she is none of these. She asks them to play Caribbean music. Elwood protests that music is not part of their repertoire, but Mousette puts a spell on them and they play the music requested. Mousette is impressed and invites them to compete the next day, but Elwood, Mac, and Cabel are transformed into zombies until their turn comes up.

A large crowd enters the mansion to see the Battle of the Bands. The band that goes before the Blues Brothers is called the Louisiana Gator Boys, and they include, among others, Melvin Gasperon, the man who sold Elwood the car. After they play their number, the zombie spell is removed from Elwood, Mac, and Cabel, and the Blues Brothers take their turn. The emcee asks the audience to cheer for their favorite band, and the Gator Boys are declared the winners.

Just then, the Russian mobsters and the redneck militia both arrive at the mansion looking for Elwood, but since neither armed group has yet met the other, each considers the other group potentially hostile, and they turn on each other. Mousette intervenes and casts a spell, turning both the Russians and the rednecks into rats. The Blues Brothers and the Gator Boys jam together.

Sister Mary arrives next, with more policemen, to find Elwood, Mac, Buster, Cabel, and the rest of the band still jamming. Cabel assures them that he is all right, but the police still suspect Elwood of kidnapping Buster. While the rest of the band members continue to play, Elwood and Buster slip out and drive away in the Bluesmobile, still pursued by police, toward an unknown fate.