I do not own the Blues Brothers or anything related to them. This was not taken from the original script, to further note. This is entirely my interpretation of the scene. (c) to Dan Aykroyd, John Landis, John Belushi and Universal.
The Dixie Mall Car Chase
The Bluesmobile was cruising along the highway at a comfortable speed. It was dark and a bit chilly, but from the rest of what happened earlier in the day, the Blues brothers felt pretty warm. At least with themselves.
While Elwood moderated a Sam and Dave tape that now played "Soothe Me" at a low frequency, Jake seemed, at least to Elwood, in an inexplicably good mood. Maybe it was the churchin' up that helped. It was puzzling to Elwood, because he had never seen his brother this upbeat since he picked him up at Joliet just this morning. In fact, it kind of made Elwood uneasy. To Elwood, whenever Jake was in a good mood, something evil was brewing in his head.
Jake's voice was pitched in a bubbly tone as he spoke to Elwood. "We'll get the band back together, do a few gigs. We get some bread. Bang! Five thousand bucks."
Elwood was a little thrown off. Jake was talking as if everything was all right and anything he said could be done. Elwood was careful as he answered. "Yeah, well, getting the band back together might not be that easy, Jake." His voice was small and low.
Jake still felt undeterred. "What are you talking about?" He glanced at Elwood.
The younger brother shrugged. "They split. They all took straight jobs." There was no other way he could possibly break it to Jake.
"Yeah, so, you know where they are." Jake reassured Elwood, and himself to some extent. "You said you were gonna keep in touch with them." He hoped Elwood wasn't trying to weasel his way out of anything that he couldn't tell him.
Elwood cocked his head. "Uh, I got a couple of leads, a few phone numbers…but I mean how many of them visited or even wrote you, huh?" There was a touch of defensiveness in his voice.
Jake suddenly was becoming very impatient. He glared at Elwood through his RayBans. "They're not the kind of guys who write letters. You were outside; I was inside. You were supposed to keep in touch with the band." He shook his head slightly in frustration. "I kept asking you if we were gonna play again." Now his tone contained some kind of pitiful plea.
Elwood was at a loss. "Well, what was I gonna do? Take away your only hope?"
Jake shot a glance at him suspiciously.
Elwood continued. "Take away the very thing that kept you going in there? I took the liberty of…bullshitting you, ok?"
Jake turned away and looked out his window. "You lied to me." he muttered disgustedly.
Elwood shrugged. He felt defeated, and caught. "It wasn't lies, it was just…bullshit."
The traffic light near the Nelson Funeral Home ahead of the Bluesmobile turned yellow, and almost absentmindedly, Elwood drove through, just as the signal turned red. A cop car with the number 70 decaled on its trunk waiting near the intersection in a gas station spotted Elwood's illegal maneuver and turned out from its post onto the road. One of the two officers in the cruiser activated the strobe lights, and Elwood immediately felt a torrent of anxiety wash over him.
"Shit." Elwood mumbled as he hung his head slightly while continuing to drive.
"What?" Jake inquired quickly.
"Rollers."
Jake looked despaired. "No."
"Yep."
"Shit." Jake was fairly annoyed now at Elwood's seemingly fixed negligence. His equilibrium was thrown off-balance from the fact he just got out of a state penitentiary on probation and now he could be put back. The Bluesmobile rounded a corner and stopped in front of a residential home. Now Jake hadn't felt his heart beat so hard for a long time. He tried to keep his cool as one of the officers, Trooper Mount, approached the idling Dodge.
Elwood rolled down his window reluctantly and tried to think of the most valid excuse possible for his action. But he really wasn't up to that. He coolly asked the officer, "What? What did I do?"
"You failed to stop at a red signal." Mount began calmly.
Elwood was being defensive. "The light was yellow, sir."
Mount nodded his head slightly. "May I see your license please?" he inquired. Elwood sighed quietly and produced his license from the sun visor. Right at that moment, "Hold On, I'm Coming" began to play.
Jake clenched his teeth angrily. "Goddammit!"
Elwood offered a more indiscreet thought. "Man, I haven't been pulled over in 6 months." Jake didn't feel much better from hearing that. He heaved a small sigh and continued to stare out his window. Elwood proceeded with his train of thought nervously. "I bet those cops have got SCMODS."
Jake turned to Elwood and blinked confusedly. "SCMODS?"
"State County Municipal Offender Data System." Elwood smiled sardonically and snorted contemptuously.
Trooper Mount ran Elwood's license through the scanner and observed the Blues brother's unbelievable driving record. The computer screen read that Elwood's license was currently under suspension, and that he had also housed 116 parking violations and 56 moving violations. His warrants outstanding were really surprising to Mount and his partner Trooper Daniel, a lean, African American man. They got the message about Elwood's record when the words "arrest driver…impound vehicle" flashed across the monitor. "Mm-hmm." Officer Daniel muttered, looking at his colleague. Officer Mount nodded his head and exited the cruiser.
He walked up to the driver's side of the Bluesmobile. Elwood was droning quietly, his head and shoulders hunched incredibly low. The young man jumped slightly as Mount began to speak. "Elwood, we show your license currently under suspension. Step out of the car please." He moved away to let Elwood out.
But Elwood wasn't going that easily. He slyly put his hand on the gear shift, and looked at Jake. Jake looked at him anxiously, panting just a little from the presence of the officers. With his heart doing about a million, Elwood locked the shift on drive and punched the accelerator. He sped away as quickly as he could, leaving the dazed officer in a misty cloud of exhaust. Trooper Mount was left stunned for a few seconds, then he made a mad dash for the cruiser, ready to take on this sneaky bastard. He activated the sirens and he and Trooper Daniel took off.
The Bluesmobile was zipping through the residential area at law-breaking speed. It veered off onto an island barrier in an attempt to lose Cruiser 70. The squad car just mimicked the Dodge's actions and climbed over the barrier as well.
Inside the Bluesmobile, Jake was far from happy. He began his tirade at Elwood in between bouts of nausea from his erratic driving. "First you trade the Cadillac for a microphone. Then you lie to me about the band. Now you're gonna put me right back in the joint!" His voice squeaked helplessly.
Elwood smiled, still keeping a firm grip on the steering wheel. "They're not gonna catch us. We're on a mission from God."
They came off the residential road and Elwood drove unthinkingly into a busy intersection. Cars blared their horns irately as the Bluesmobile and the cruiser donuted and spun crazily.
Jake felt his heart plummet into his stomach. He grabbed the window ledge of the passenger seat and hung on for his life. "Elwood…" he muttered weakly, each near-fatal crash that Elwood could've caused making his heart do 360's in his chest.
Elwood finally made his way out of the intersection, much to Jake's relief. He sped down the highway at break-neck speed, trying to shake the cruiser from his tail.
The cruiser followed relentlessly, speeding up to catch the furious, rubber-burning Dodge. They crossed busy intersections and ran stoplights, making countless numbers of innocent and pissed off drivers very mad. Trooper Daniel had had enough. He pulled out a transmitter radio and began to speak severely but calmly into it. "We are in high-speed pursuit northbound on Courtland Avenue. Black and white 1974 Dodge sedan with Illinois plates. Request assistance."
The Bluesmobile was jetting down the highway, not daring to loosen its slack and slow down. Elwood was frantically trying to figure out where to go or what to do. His train of thought was interrupted when he suddenly noticed another squad car, Cruiser 10, had seemingly come out of nowhere and was practically tailgating him. He finally spotted the entrance to the Dixie Mall, and he sharply turned into the parking lot.
The three cars were playing cat and mouse with each other. This was causing Jake to have a heart attack. He kept glancing over his shoulder to see if Elwood was losing the cruisers, but still to no avail. The Bluesmobile swerved and skidded around every corner of the parking, barely missing the bumpers of the parked cars. Elwood continued to maneuver as best as he could, while trying to console his nervous-wreck brother.
"We'll be all right if we can just get back on the expressway." Elwood said as he rounded another corner.
Jake shot his brother a malicious glance. "This don't look like no expressway to me!" he snapped.
Elwood hunched down lower into his seat. He quietly uttered, "Don't yell at me."
Jake was getting profoundly aggravated now. "What the hell you want me to do, motorhead?"
"Well, try not to be so negative all the time. Why don't you offer some…constructive criticism?" Elwood shot back, raising his voice a few decibels.
The Dodge was running out of area for elusion. Elwood was nearing the end of the line where there was no place else to go. Jake couldn't take it anymore. Above the agonizing throbbing of his heartbeat ringing in his ears, he shouted indignantly, "You got us into this parking lot, pal. Now you get us out!"
Elwood had just about enough of Jake's pessimism. So, without thinking, again, he said moderately, not taking his eyes off the road, "You want out of this parking lot? Ok."
Jake had no idea what Elwood was going to do. But he had a pretty good idea when he noticed the Dodge wasn't planning on braking anytime soon as it neared the entrance of a Toys R Us.
A clerk and a customer holding a Sesame Street Grover doll didn't have any idea of what was going to happen next either.
"Would there be anything else?" The blond clerk asked.
"Yes. Do you have a Miss Piggy?" The customer smiled. And then…crash!
Dozens of spooked customers scattered like marbles all over the store as the Bluesmobile charged through the entrance, the two cruisers following hotly. It smashed through a wall of the store and made its way through the ground floor of the mall. Elwood laid on the horn as more mall patrons went scurrying for their lives, trying to get out of the speed demon's way. Seeming to forget they were being chased, Jake and Elwood looked curiously at the many outlets the mall housed.
"There's Hanson burgers." Jake pointed out on his left.
"Yeah," Elwood added. "Lots of space in this mall."
Elwood decided he would make things more interesting. He thought maybe if he totaled some property and damaged some more stores, leaving the wreckage behind him, it might slow the cops down. He turned the wheel hard into a Gingiss formalwear outlet, smashing glass and taking out mannequins. As Elwood had hoped, the debris left by the crash that was clinging to the Dodge's tires and hood was being strewn right into the cruisers' path. The cops swerved and braked suddenly, trying not to hit anything dangerously big.
The Brothers continued their absentminded observations.
"Disco pants and haircuts."
"Yeah."
Elwood took another turn, this time into a bakery by the name of Davidson's. The cops followed, crushing pastries and scaring off more confused shoppers. Elwood made another grand attempt and rammed the Dodge into a music store, knocking over highly expensive brass and bass. The cruisers were trying to catch up, but were having a bit of trouble. The cruisers stalled momentarily, their tires spinning on the materials that littered the ground. The Dodge, after stalling itself for a brief moment, exited the music store, the loud crash of the drum set that had collected itself on the Dodge's hood producing a tremendous piercing crash as its cymbals hit the floor.
The squad cars got back on their feet, Cruiser 10 leading on the chase once more. They got close enough to see the Bluesmobile take out a display case with a half dozen mannequins in it. They crashed to the floor and shattered into a million fragments. With each store the Dodge tore through, the officers' blood grew hotter. They put the petal to the metal, almost forgetting about the hundreds of innocent people who were darting out of their way.
Elwood cruised stealthily through the mall, and Jake was becoming a little less uptight than he was before. Elwood noted another store.
"Baby clothes."
Jake shook his head. "This place has got everything."
The squad cars were speeding up behind the brothers, and it was making Elwood nervous. He executed a sharp swerve around a tented venue that was selling all kinds of trinkets and beads. His sudden turn caught the officers off guard, and they ended up sliding into the little venue. The friction of the squad cars' tires burned up the objects they were spinning on. They couldn't maneuver the cruisers off the all the fabric and plastic; they kept spinning in circles as the Bluesmobile continued to get away.
Suddenly, Elwood made another acceleration and veered off into another store. He flew the Dodge into the windows of an Oldsmobile dealership, terrifying the customers in it. Elwood was oblivious to the panic that was kalidescoping around him, except for one thing. "The new Oldsmobiles are in early this year." he remarked to Jake as he pulled out of the dealership.
Cruisers 10 and 70 finally got themselves out of the endless circle they had now engrained into the ground and sped off down the mall floor after the Dodge.
Elwood decided to make one last observation. "Pier 1 Imports," he declared, and drove straight into yet another little trinket stand.
Cruiser 10 had pulled ahead quite a ways from Cruiser 70. Each car was wearing itself out from driving over the enormous amount of debris left in the Bluesmobile's wake, and the driving was becoming more difficult with each tread of the tires. Cruiser 70 found itself at a temporary standstill when it swiped sharply to the left into the Pier 1 Imports to avoid hitting a massive lot of mangled items.
Cruiser 10 found itself to be not as lucky.
The officer driving Cruiser 10 suddenly noticed the broken up remains of the stand the Bluesmobile had just demolished. "Oh, shit!!!" the officer bellowed helplessly. Trying to avoid hitting the beams and wood, the officer turned slightly, but his speed kept him from making a clean miss. The vehicle hit the beams and ended up overturning onto its roof. It proceeded to keep moving along the concrete floor of the mall. Sparks flew up as the metal roof was brazed roughly on the ground. The terrified officer and his companion officer screamed bloody murder as they continued to slide across the floor, the metal screeching exasperatingly.
Cruiser 70 extricated itself from the Pier 1 Imports and made a last attempt at catching the artful Dodge. Elwood noticed this and decided to crash one more stand to keep the officers at bay. He took out a magazine stand and then sped up as much as he could. The Cruiser wasn't giving up yet though. It flew past Cruiser 10 (still on its roof), accidentally hitting its bumper and sending their colleague officers into another screaming spell, and scurried up behind as much as they could. The subtle Dodge made an unexpected turn off to the right, leaving the confused officers heading straight for a Jewel Grocery in their path. Trooper Mount was too late in executing his action to avoid the store, and ended up crashing right into it, sending cereal and shelves flying. And with that, the cruiser stopped.
The Bluesmobile had successfully outrun the two squad cars, and Elwood punched the accelerator as hard as he could, sending the Dodge flying through a JC Penney display case and out into the parking lot once again. The engine revved aggressively and sped out into the night. The Blues Brothers had gotten away.
Inside the demolished mall, everything lay in a shambles. People began to come out slowly and scrutinize the damage that had been done. Cruiser 10 had finally stopped spinning around on the floor from being hit, and the petrified officers felt as if they were hyperventilating. The officer in the passenger seat looked around cautiously, noticing that he and his fellow officer were upside down once the dizziness left him. He looked at his arm carefully, then exclaimed to no one in particular, "They broke my watch!"
Inside the Jewel Grocery, Troopers Daniel and Mount weren't exactly pleased with what had happened. They were enraged. With his teeth clenched, Daniel turned to Mount and promised, "I'm gonna catch that sucker…if it's the last thing I ever do."
Mount nodded.
End
The Blues Brothers are copyrighted to Dan Aykroyd/Universal Pictures.