50 free The Blues Brothers trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free The Blues Brothers trivia questions with answers. The Blues Brothers began as two Saturday Night Live cast members in bee costumes, became a chart-topping band before they had a movie, and then made one of the most expensive comedies ever shot, with a 324-page script bound in a phone-book cover and a record for cars destroyed. Forty-five years on it plays every week somewhere. This quiz covers the band and the film: the SNL sketch that started it, Briefcase Full of Blues, the real musicians who backed Jake and Elwood, the orphanage, the Penguin, the Triple Rock church, the Dixie Square Mall chase, Bob's Country Bunker, the Illinois Nazis, the Mystery Woman, the Palace Hotel Ballroom concert, the Cook County Assessor's office, every cameo from Spielberg to Pee-wee Herman, the Bluesmobile's specs and the ill-fated 1998 sequel. Easy questions for anyone who has seen it, hard ones for people who quote it. Every answer was checked against a documented source and the citation sits under each explanation, so nothing rests on half-remembered late-night viewings.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed the 1980 film The Blues Brothers?
John Landis
He had directed Belushi in Animal House and co-wrote the screenplay with Aykroyd; he also cameos as a state trooper in the mall chase.
Q 02Jake and Elwood set out on 'a mission from God' to save what?
The orphanage where they were raised
The Catholic orphanage needs $5,000 in property taxes; Sister Mary Stigmata, 'the Penguin', delivers the bad news.
Q 03How much money do the brothers need to raise to pay the orphanage's tax bill?
$5,000
A record executive's $10,000 advance at the Palace Hotel Ballroom concert finally covers it, plus their bar tab IOU.
Q 04Jake is paroled at the start of the film from which Illinois prison, whose name is also his nickname?
Joliet
He has served three years of a five-year sentence for armed robbery; the scenes were shot at the real Joliet Correctional Center.
Q 05The Bluesmobile is what make and model of car?
1974 Dodge Monaco
It is a decommissioned Mount Prospect police car with a 440 Magnum engine; Elwood traded the old Cadillac for a microphone.
Q 06Elwood demonstrates the Bluesmobile's capabilities right after picking Jake up by doing what?
Jumping an open drawbridge
The car later 'jumps' the Illinois Nazis and finally falls to pieces outside the Daley Center after a mechanic spent months rigging it.
Q 07Which soul legend plays the Reverend Cleophus, whose sermon gives Jake his epiphany?
James Brown
The scene is set at the Triple Rock Baptist Church and Chaka Khan is the choir soloist; Brown re-recorded 'The Old Landmark' live on a soundstage.
Q 08Cab Calloway plays the orphanage janitor and the brothers' father figure. What is his character called?
Curtis
The name honours Curtis Salgado, an Oregon blues singer who inspired Belushi while he was filming Animal House.
Q 09Which signature song does Cab Calloway perform to stall the crowd at the Palace Hotel Ballroom?
Minnie the Moocher
Calloway wanted a disco arrangement; Landis insisted on the original big-band version.
Q 10Aretha Franklin, as the wife of guitarist Matt Murphy, sings which song to stop him rejoining the band?
Think
The couple run a soul food restaurant on Maxwell Street; Franklin needed several takes because she was unused to lip-syncing.
Q 11Ray Charles plays Ray, the owner of what kind of business, and performs 'Shake a Tail Feather' there?
A music store
The blind shopkeeper proves the effectiveness of his instruments, and of his aim.
Q 12Who plays the 'Mystery Woman' trying to kill Jake with rocket launchers, bombs and an M16?
Carrie Fisher
She is Jake's ex-fiancee, jilted at the altar; Fisher was Aykroyd's girlfriend at the time.
Q 13The famous car chase through a shopping centre was filmed at which real, shuttered location?
Dixie Square in Harvey, Illinois
Q 21Which model appears as the 'chic lady' in a Jaguar whom Elwood propositions at a gas station?
Twiggy
Elwood promises to meet her later and stands her up; Joe Walsh of the Eagles is the first prisoner to jump on a table in the finale.
Q 22Who plays Jake's parole officer, Burton Mercer, who rides along with the police?
John Candy
Candy's parole officer tags along with the state troopers for the entire chase and ends up in the mob outside the Assessor's office.
Q 23What home address on Elwood's driver's licence sends the Nazis to a famous ballpark?
1060 West Addison
It is the address of Wrigley Field, whose entrance sign 'Save lives, Drive safely, Prevent fires' gets a brief cameo.
Toys 'R' Us and Jewel are visible inside; the customer asking for a Miss Piggy doll is the stunt coordinator.
Q 14Where does Elwood run the neo-Nazi demonstrators off a bridge?
Jackson Park
The Illinois Nazis, led by Henry Gibson's Head Nazi, swear revenge and chase the brothers to the end.
Q 15The band plays Bob's Country Bunker, a honky-tonk in Kokomo, Indiana, by impersonating which booked act?
The Good Ole Boys
The real band, fronted by Charles Napier's Tucker McElroy in a Winnebago, joins the pursuit for the rest of the film.
Q 16Which TV Western theme does Elwood sing lead on to win over the crowd at Bob's Country Bunker?
Rawhide
It is Aykroyd's only lead vocal on the soundtrack; the band also plays 'Stand By Your Man' from behind chicken wire.
Q 17The climactic concert venue, the Palace Hotel Ballroom, was really what at the time of filming?
A country club
It later became the South Shore Cultural Center, named for the Chicago neighbourhood where it stands.
Q 18Which famous director cameos as the Cook County clerk who takes the brothers' tax payment?
Steven Spielberg
The brothers are arrested by a small army the moment they get their receipt.
Q 19Muppet performer Frank Oz plays which small role at the very start of the film?
The officer returning Jake's belongings
The possessions include one unused prophylactic and one soiled; Oz turns up again in Blues Brothers 2000.
Q 20Before he was Pee-wee Herman, which future star appears as a snooty waiter at the fancy French restaurant?
Paul Reubens
His single line is 'We have a Dom Pérignon '71 at $120.'
Q 24For the big chase scenes the production bought roughly how many police cars, at $400 apiece?
60
Most were wrecked, and at release the film held the world record for the most cars destroyed in one movie.
Q 25The Illinois Nazis' Ford Pinto was really dropped from a helicopter from about what height?
1,200 feet
The FAA had to issue a Special Airworthiness Certificate; the freeway-ramp shot before it was filmed in Milwaukee, not Chicago.
Q 26How long was Dan Aykroyd's first-draft screenplay, and how did he deliver it?
324 pages, in a Yellow Pages cover
He had never written or even read a screenplay; Landis rewrote it before shooting began without a final budget.
Q 27The film's final budget came to about $27.5M. Roughly how far over the original was that?
$10M
It still grossed over $115 million worldwide despite getting less than half the usual bookings, and entered the National Film Registry in 2020.
Q 28The Blues Brothers first appeared on Saturday Night Live in January 1976 in what unlikely outfits?
Bee costumes
'Howard Shore and his All-Bee Band' played Slim Harpo's 'I'm a King Bee' with Belushi singing and Aykroyd on harmonica.
Q 29The act made its proper debut as SNL musical guest on April 22, 1978, on an episode hosted by whom?
Steve Martin
They then opened for Martin at the Universal Amphitheatre that September, where their first album was recorded live.
Q 30The band's 1978 live debut album, which went to number one on the Billboard chart, was titled what?
Briefcase Full of Blues
It went double platinum and spun off 'Soul Man', a number 14 hit, and 'Rubber Biscuit'.