John Candy

Explores the life and legacy of iconic funnyman John Candy, who died of a heart attack in 1994, at age 43.

In the 1860s Wild West, a ragged bunch of misfit settlers decides they cannot stand living in their current situation and they hire a grizzled cowboy to take them on a journey back East to their hometowns.

An American named Phoebe (Sean Young) arrives in Rome, Italy, after her Italian boyfriend, Marcello, invited her to move there with him. However, when she arrives, he refuses to take her telephone calls. Heartbroken, Phoebe wanders the streets of Rome, where a dachshund, wearing an expensive plaid coat, snatches her lunch. She shoos the dog away, but soon after, sees a newspaper advertisement offering a $5,000 reward for the lost dachshund's return to its wealthy owner, Madame Van Dougen, who lives in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Nearby, another American, Julian Peters (Richard Lewis), is fired by his Italian acting agent. When the lost dog begs him for food, he notes its expensive collar and sees "Monte Carlo" written on its name tag. Phoebe sees him with the dog and pretends it belongs to her; however, Julian does not believe her, and guesses that she is after a reward. She reluctantly agrees to split the money with him, and they travel to Monte Carlo by train. Elsewhere on the train, American couple Neil and Marilyn Schwary (James Belushi and Cybill Shepherd) discus Neil's system for winning at roulette. American passenger Augie Morosco (John Candy) interjects that there is no way to win at a casino, and admits that he is a recovering gambling addict, traveling to join his wealthy wife, Elena, in Monte Carlo. Soon after, Phoebe sees Augie Morosco holding the dachshund, and accuses him of stealing it. However, Augie tells her he bought the dog from a man in the dining car. Phoebe is furious, and searches for Julian, who tells her that Augie paid him $6,000 for the animal. Phoebe insists they return the money, and deliver the dog as promised. Augie refuses to return the pet until a train porter demands to see its traveling papers. Augie returns the dog to Julian, asking him to find him in Monte Carlo if he changes his mind about selling, and handing him a matchbook with his name on it. Julian and Phoebe are forced to exit the train and have the dog inspected by a veterinarian. When Julian telephones Madam Van Dougen to tell her they will be delayed, he hears an unexplained disruption on the other end of the line. Meanwhile, Marilyn and Neil arrive in Monaco, and she begs him not to gamble away all of their vacation money at the hotel casino. However, Neil ignores her and cashes in every cent on gambling chips. Marilyn dons an expensive gown from Neil's wholesale clothing business, before joining him in the casino. When she enters, she catches the eye of a dashing Italian man named Alfonso de la Pena (George Hamilton), but when Neil sees her, he calls her a "jinx" and sends her away from him. Marilyn meets Greek gambler Hercules Popodopoulos (Joss Ackland) who asks her to pick a number for him at the craps table. After winning, Hercules shares the profits with her and teaches her how to place bets. Before long, Marilyn wins a half-million dollars. Elsewhere, Neil loses all of his money. When he sees Augie Morosco winning at several tables at once, Neil begs for his help. They place a bet together, as Augie's beautiful wife, Elena (Ornella Muti), arrives, and chastises him for giving in to his addiction. Augie ignores her, and he and Neil win a large sum of money. Arriving in Monte Carlo, Phoebe is still angry with Julian for attempting to sell the dog behind her back. Despite the late hour, they go directly to Madame Van Dougen's villa, as instructed, but find the place empty. While wandering the grounds, they discover her body inside a garage, and flee. Julian returns for Phoebe's suitcase, and sees a man hiding in the bushes. Phoebe insists they go to police, but Julian fears they will be arrested as suspects, and treated poorly because they are foreigners. When officers walk past them on the street, Julian kisses Phoebe to hide their faces, leaving her flustered. Soon after, they make an anonymous telephone call to police from a cafe. Police trace the call and soon arrive. After Julian and Phoebe overhear the cafe owner giving their description to police, Phoebe puts the dog on a bus to get rid of it, but realizes that she left her suitcase at Madame Van Dougen's villa. Julian refuses to return with her and they part ways. Meanwhile, Augie and Neil lose all their money at the casino. Distraught, Neil wanders the streets and prays to find a suitcase filled with money. Outside of Madame Van Dougen's villa, Neil's wish is granted when he sees a suitcase sitting next to a running vehicle. With no one in sight, he steals it, and returns to his hotel room, where he pleads with Marilyn to forgive him for losing their money. Marilyn says she put money aside, knowing he would lose it all, and chastises him for stealing the suitcase. When they look inside, they are shocked to find the body of an old woman (off-camera). Fearing they will be arrested as suspects, they pack their belongings and flee the hotel, planning to abandon the suitcase along the way. Phoebe arrives at Madame Van Dougen's villa to search for her suitcase, followed by Julian, who apologizes for leaving her. He goes inside to get her suitcase, where police lie in wait. Inspector Bonnard (Giancarlo Giannini) questions Julian, who is nervous and appears guilty. Phoebe hides among the crowd that has formed outside the gates, and overhears a witness tell police that he saw a man and woman with a dog enter the property, and identifies Julian as the man he saw. As Phoebe looks on, the dachshund returns home, and runs to her side. She hides the pet under her coat, while Julian is taken to jail. The next morning, Neil and Marilyn Schwary board a train, and check the suitcase onto a train headed for a different destination. However, as they celebrate their escape, the porter chases after them with the suitcase. Despite their protests, he pushes it through the window of their departing train car. They try once more to get rid of it, to no avail, and porters soon find the body after a routine check of passengers' luggage. Inspector Bonnard questions Madame Van Dougen's short housekeeper and butler, who claim they were out of the house all evening after learning the housekeeper's sister had been in an automobile accident. When Phoebe is found with the dog, she is arrested and brought to the station. The housekeeper and butler confirm that it is, in fact, Madame Van Dougen's dog, Napoleon. Bonnard questions Julian and Phoebe about Augie Morosco, whose name was written in a matchbook found next to Van Dougen's body. Julian realizes he must have dropped the matchbook, and struggles to explain how it got there. Bonnard declares that their accomplices have arrived, as Neil and Marilyn Schwary are brought into the station in handcuffs. However, Julian and Phoebe do not know Neil and Marilyn, and Bonnard tries to sort out the truth as everyone claims their innocence. Meanwhile, Augie buys flowers for Elena and vows to have given up gambling for good. She forgives him, and tells him the newspaper story about Van Dougen's murder. Back at the police station, Neil names Augie as his alibi on the night of the murder, and Bonnard calls Augie in for questioning. When Augie reveals that he met Van Dougen several weeks before at a casino, Bonnard believes he is guilty. Surprised to see all four of his American acquaintances from the train behind bars, Augie reluctantly admits to having met Julian and Phoebe on the train, but refuses to admit that he knows Neil and Marilyn, whom he suspects of being guilty. Augie claims he was with his wife at the time of the murder, and later asks Elena to be his alibi. She confesses that she was with another man at the time, in retaliation for Augie's gambling. When Italian playboy Alfonso de la Pena overhears their conversation at a restaurant, he flees, and Elena admits that Alfonso was her lover. Augie follows Alfonso, and convinces him to keep quiet about the events of that night. That evening, Bonnard arrives at the hotel to question Augie again, and reveals that a man was seen going out the fire escape of his wife's room. Augie claims to have been the man, and Bonnard asks him to reenact the events of the night, following Augie to the fire escape, and forcing him to walk across a beam to the other side of the street where he gained entrance into Van Dougen's villa. Augie and Bonnard enter Van Dougen's home where Bonnard has gathered the American suspects to try to get to the truth. They turn on each other as they each proclaim their innocence. However, Elena refuses to name Alfonso de la Pena as the man she was with, until Bonnard brings him into the room. Julian instantly recognizes Alfonso's shiny shoes and insists he was the man in the bushes at the crime scene. Alfonso confesses that he and Van Dougen, whom he calls "Claire," were secret lovers, and insists she was not in her bedroom when he arrived for their regular rendezvous. He only hid in the bushes to protect Claire's privacy when he heard Julian and Phoebe arrive. Finally, Bonnard brings in the housekeeper and butler, and reveals several holes in their story, forcing the butler to confess that he and the housekeeper murdered Van Dougen due to her abusive and harsh treatment of them. The Americans celebrate their release over dinner, with Bonnard in attendance. Julian toasts to Napoleon for the dog's part in leading him to his new love, Phoebe, while Marilyn reveals her $500,000 winnings to Neil, and demands he start treating her with more respect. Later, Bonnard tells one of his detectives that Madame Van Dougen left her $20 million fortune to Napoleon, and realizes that whoever inherited the dog will actually receive the money. Elsewhere in the final scene, Alfonso de la Pena sips champagne on a yacht with Napoleon.

A soap opera writer gets hit on the head and wakes up as a character in his own show. Jack is the head writer for a successful soap opera, and he's sweet on the show's star, lovely Laura. It's easy for everyone but Jack to see that she's playing him for a sap. But a conk on the head brings Jack some new insights - and some new powers. He finds himself in Ashford Falls, site of his fictional soap opera -- and everything he writes comes true! It's a fantastic opportunity to get Rachel, Laura's character, to fall in love with him. But life isn't easy even in the fictional world, and even when you're the author! —Rick Munoz <rick.munoz@his.com>

Harry Crumb is a bumbling and inept private investigator who is hired to solve the kidnapping of a young heiress which he's not expected to solve because his employer is the mastermind behind the kidnapping. Harry is the latest generation of the Crumbs, famous and extremely talented detectives. Unfortunately, talent seems to have skipped a generation and Harry is reduced to "gumshoe" work at a remote branch of the Crumb Detective Agency. Back at headquarters, Crumb executive Elliot Draison hatches an evil plan which requires the inclusion of an incompetent detective. With Harry Crumb on the case, Draison thinks everything will run fine for him. Despite his best efforts, Crumb actually makes some headway in the case. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

A Chicago man and his family go camping with his obnoxious brother-in-law. Having fond memories of the good old days at Pine Lodge Resort in Pechoggin, Wisconsin, Chicago family man Chet Ripley takes his wife and kids to the lakeside honeymoon cabin for the summer. But instead of having an unforgettable vacation in nature, high-rolling brother-in-law Roman and the haughty Craig family crash the party. Chet can now say goodbye to family bonding. As the two rivalling families half-heartedly try to spend quality time together, a string of undeserved misfortunes and mini-disasters pave the way for the ultimate showdown between clans. The question remains, however. Can the modern urbanites survive the Great Outdoors and save what's left of the holiday? —Nick Riganas When an unannounced, uninvited and unwelcome family of fun-loving misfits converge upon a lakeside resort to join their relatives for a summer of relaxation, the result is anything but restful in this raucous comedy starring Dan Aykroyd and John Candy. It's a vacationer's worst nightmare, as wheeler-dealer Aykroyd, his sexually repressed wife and eerie twin daughters "join" the easygoing Candy and his straight-laced clan for a season of "fun" in the sun. Unfortunately, the only thing these two in-laws have in common is their intense dislike for each other. Soon, it's brother-in-law against brother-in-law in an uproarious and hilarious fight to the finish to see which one really knows how to enjoy The Great Outdoors. —Anonymous Big-hearted Chicago family man Chet has brought his family to a lakeside resort area, and although his wife and kids aren't quite as excited as he is, Chet has high hopes for the vacation. However, his optimism is sabotaged when his obnoxious brother-in-law Roman drops in unexpectedly, along with his snooty, strange family. Chet and his family try to stay open-minded, but they find it difficult to relax and enjoy themselves because of the constant annoyance of Roman's presence. —William Agee <wa0521@broncho.ucok.edu> Chicago resident Chester "Chet" Ripley, his wife Connie, and their two sons Buck and Benny are on vacation at a lake resort in Pechoggin, Wisconsin. Then the unexpected happens -- Connie's sister Kate, Kate's know-it-all investment broker husband Roman Craig, and Kate and Roman's twin daughters Mara and Cara crash the vacation, having decided to blow off their own plans to vacation in Europe. Roman proceeds to majorly get on Chet's nerves -- so much that Chet is ready and willing to pack up and go home, even as teenager Buck tries to romance local girl Cammie. —Todd Baldridge

Planet Spaceball, led by President Skroob (Mel Brooks), has wasted all of its air. Skroob schemes to steal air from their peace-loving neighboring planet Druidia by kidnapping the daughter of King Roland (Dick Van Patten), Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga), on the day of her already arranged wedding to the narcoleptic Prince Valium (Jim J. Bullock). Vespa says that she does not love Valium, but Roland replies that Valium is the last prince left in the Galaxy and as per the rules, a Princess can only marry a Prince. Skroob wants to force Druidia's ruler King Roland to give him the code to the shield surrounding the planet. Druidia has 10,000 years of fresh air. Skroob sends Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) to complete this task with Spaceball One, an impossibly huge ship piloted by Colonel Sandurz (George Wyner). Before they can arrive, Vespa herself abandons her marriage and flees the planet along with her Droid of Honor, Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers), in her personal Mercedes spaceship. Spaceball One closes in on Vespa and her spaceship and starts firing warning shots across her bow. Vespa is terrified and calls her father to get her some help. King Roland contacts the mercenary Captain Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his Mawg (half-man, half-dog) sidekick, Barf (John Candy), offering a lucrative reward to retrieve Vespa before she is captured. Lone Starr readily accepts, as he is in major debt with the space gangster Pizza the Hutt (Dom DeLuise). Lone Starr owed 100,000 Spacebucks, but Pizza the Hutt who says that the due amount is 1 million Spacebucks due to the late charges. They are contacted by Pizza the Hutt and his robotic minion Vinny to retrieve the money they owe them "or else Pizza is going to send out for you". Lone Starr and Barf, in their Winnebago spaceship (Eagle 5), reach Vespa before Spaceball One (they scramble the radar of the Spaceball One, but throwing a bottle of Jam at their radar), rescue her and Dot, and escape into hyperspace. When the radar is repaired, Dark Helmet realizes that Vespa has been taken by Lone Starr and decides to go after them. Dark Helmet and a reluctant Sandurz use "Ludicrous Speed", but heavily overshoot the group when they try to follow. Vespa is livid at being rescued in such a filthy spaceship such as the Eagle 5. While being rescued, she demanded that Barf carry her matched luggage to the Eagle 5. Running out of fuel, the Eagle 5 crew and passengers crash on the nearby desert "Moon of Vega". The four escapees travel on foot for a while, but ultimately pass out in the relentless heat. They are found by the Dink-Dinks, a group of diminutive aliens in sparkly robes, and taken to the hidden cave of the wise old sage Yogurt (Mel Brooks). Yogurt introduces Lone Starr to the power of "The Schwartz". Yogurt also introduces the audience to the film's merchandising campaign, which becomes prevalent throughout the rest of the film. During their respite on the moon, Lone Starr and Vespa begin to flirt, but Vespa insists she can only be married to a prince. Lone Starr shows Yogurt a medallion bearing an indecipherable message that was found with him when he was abandoned as a baby. The Spaceballs break the fourth wall by going through a VHS copy of the film to locate the Eagle 5's whereabouts. Helmet disguises himself as Roland to lure Vespa and Dot out of the cave. The Spaceballs capture Vespa and return with her to the planet Spaceball. The Spaceballs threaten to reverse Vespa's nose job, forcing Roland to give over the code to the shield that protects Druidia. Dark Helmet takes Spaceball One to Druidia, and transforms the ship into Mega Maid, a giant robotic maid with a vacuum cleaner that begins sucking the air from the planet. As Lone Starr and Barf prepare to chase Helmet, Yogurt gives Lone Starr a ring that he can use to channel the Schwartz. Lone Starr, with Yogurt's help in repairing his ship and training in the Schwartz, races to the planet Spaceball to rescue Vespa. Lone Starr and Barf infiltrate the prison and break them out, and all four escape in Eagle 5 while leaving their stunt doubles to be captured. Spaceball One transforms itself into a giant maid (Mega-Maid), opens the shield, and uses a vacuum cleaner (vacuum of space) to suck the air from Druidia. Lone Starr taps into the Schwartz to reverse the flow and return the air (saving Roland and the Druidians), then pilots Eagle 5 into the head of Mega-Maid. Lone Starr finds a self-destruct button, but Helmet interrupts and they engage in a duel using light-saber-like weapons that extend from their Schwartz rings. Helmet steals Lone Starr's ring and drops it through a floor grate, but Lone Starr gets a telepathic message from Yogurt telling him that the power lies within him instead of the ring. As Helmet prepares to attack, Lone Starr levitates a mirror and reflects Helmet's blast, knocking him into the self-destruct button. Lone Starr returns to Eagle 5 and pilots it to safety. Skroob, Helmet and Sandurz fail to reach any escape pods in time and discover the "cancellation button" is out of order as Mega-Maid explodes. Lone Starr and Barf discover that Pizza the Hutt had locked himself in a limousine and ate himself to death, absolving them of the debt. The duo return Vespa and Dot to Roland, but take only enough money to cover their expenses. The remnants of the Mega-Maid crash-land on a nearby planet populated by intelligent apes, who express dismay at the stranded Spaceballs. After being scared by a singing Xenomorph at a diner, Lone Starr and Barf find a final message from Yogurt hidden in a fortune cookie, telling them that Lone Starr's medallion means he is a prince and can thus marry Vespa. The two return to Druidia just in time to stop her wedding to Valium, and Lone Starr announces his royal lineage and marries Vespa. The film ends with them riding off in Eagle 5 and a message to the audience stating, "May the Schwartz Be With You".

Officer Frank Dooley (John Candy), a 10-year veteran of the LAPD, is framed for the theft of a television set by two corrupt detectives, Sgt. Rizzo (Don Stroud) and Mel Nedler (who Dooley had actually caught robbing an appliance store). He is dismissed from the force, but escapes criminal punishment at his day in court. The next court case features hapless and nervous defense attorney named Norman Kane (Eugene Levy) attempting to defend a Charles Manson-type white supremacist cult leader named Lawrence Lupik (Glenn Withrow), who threatens to kill him should Kane fail to keep him out of prison. A fearful Kane reveals his ineptitude and the death threat to the judge (Stacy Keach, Sr.), who tells Kane that he will give Lupik "A sentence so long he won't even remember his own name, let alone yours" so long as Kane agrees to find another line of work with a "lot less responsibility". Dooley and Kane meet for the first time when they both apply for work at Guard Dog Security, a low-rent firm run by the gruff "Captain" Clarence O'Connell (Kenneth McMillan) and part of a security guard's union requiring heavy $15 a week contributions that is represented by Clyde Klepper (Jonathan Banks) and Tony Lazarus (Brion James). Becoming licensed armed security guards after a single afternoon of training, Dooley and Kane are made partners by Guard Dog supervisor Maggie Cavanaugh (Meg Ryan) and assigned to night duty at the Carlex Pharmaceutical Company's warehouse. During their first night, after being loudly ordered to take a lunch break by senior guard Bruno (Tom Lister, Jr.), Kane happens upon an armed robbery of the warehouse and quickly calls over the radio to Frank for help, but they prove no match for the thieves (the robbers are Klepper and Lazarus in ski masks) who used machine guns. Kane unwittingly escapes into the "Annex" where Bruno had told them to stay away from as it was guarded by the K9 Patrol (Rottweiler's and Doberman's). In there he is chased by the dogs until Frank shows up and fights them off with unusual tactics, including biting one and punching another. The next day, the pair are berated and fined $100 each by O'Connell for their screw up in not nabbing or identifying the thieves despite their contention that they had machine guns and were wearing ski masks. This leaves them suspicious of the company as they hadn't done anything to warrant the hefty fine (almost a week's pay). When Maggie asks about the meeting afterwards, both men vent their anger about O'Connell (Dooley calls him a jerk while Kane calls him a "Sub-human, moronic, poop head"), only to be informed by Maggie that O'Connell is actually her father. Dooley and Kane then attend a meeting of the union, where after getting turned down in their plea to have the fine revoked and it being revealed that Klepper and Lazarus work for Carlino, Kane pointedly questions union president Michael Carlino (Robert Loggia) about how the union dues each member is required to pay are spent (roughly $4 million per year). After Kane rejects an evasive answer from Union treasurer Lou Brackman (James Tolkan), an enraged Carlino threatens to break Kane's legs should he ever attend another union meeting and then abruptly adjourns the meeting. Over the next few days, Dooley and Kane find themselves assigned to work at a landfill and a toxic waste dump, causing both to come to the conclusion that the assignments are the result of Kane speaking out at the union meeting. At the toxic waste dump, Dooley and Kane listen to a similar story by two burned-out guards about a robbery incident over three weeks ago when they were on warehouse duty and forced to take their lunch break by Bruno which resulted in the warehouse getting robbed while they were away. Convinced something illegal is afoot, the pair track down Bruno at his gym and interrogate him. With the threat of heavy weights crashing down on his head, Bruno confesses that it was O'Connell who had phoned him that night and instructed him to order Dooley and Kane to go to lunch and be away from the warehouse at exactly midnight, but maintains that he doesn't know anything about the robbery. After letting Bruno go, the bumbling duo make a quick escape from the gym while an angry Bruno chases after them on foot. The pair then visit an old friend of Dooley's, a retired thief named Cappy (Tony Burton), who is fishing with other men at a small pier, to get information on Carlino. Upon learning of Carlino's corruption (which cost Kane a weeks pay in bribes for information as Cappy wouldn't take money from Dooley), they bring their suspicions to Maggie, but she rejects them as having no evidence to back them up. An evening or two later, Dooley and Kane meet two loose women at a local bar where they dress up in blue tuxedos and use the women as their escorts to crash a formal dinner party thrown by Carlino in hopes of gathering some evidence. While hiding out in an overheated steam room and eavesdropping on a meeting between Carlino and Brackman in the backyard, they learn of Carlino's use of the union's pension fund to finance dealings with a Colombian drug cartel and his plans to have the money robbed from an armored car, with insurance covering the loss. Fearing an investigation by the insurance company in which he will be the fall guy for turning the funds into cash, Brackman urges Carlino not to go through with the robbery. In response, Carlino instructs Klepper and Lazarus to take Brackman away and dispose of him. Dooley and Kane attempt to save Brackman, but are too late to prevent his murder and instead find themselves framed for his death. At the party, Maggie asks O'Connell about what is happening, he refuses to give her any answer and tells her to stay out of his business. A long chase beings as Dooley and Kane are chased by Carlino's henchmen from the Hollywood Hills and through downtown L.A., and evade them, only to run into the police which their car goes off the road. After hiding out in a porno bookstore and peep show, Dooley and Kane evade the bad cops, Rizzo and Nedler, looking for them by somehow dressing up as outlandish gay couple (Dooley being a 'Divine' lookalike and Kane as a leather-man), the two spend the rest of the night evading the police. In the morning, the cross-dressing duo meet at MacArthur Park with the receptive and amused Maggie where they reveal Carlino's intentions and make plans to prevent the armored car robbery. Kane and Maggie take over driving the truck, while Dooley plans to meet them ahead of the would-be robbers. On the 6th Street Bridge, Dooley has problems with his motorcycle and is forced to hitch a ride with "Cowboy" (Steve Railsback), a wild trucker who eagerly disobeys traffic laws and uses his truck to ram his way through a traffic jam (while hauling VERY flammable rocket fuel). Meanwhile, Kane and Maggie avoid assaults from multiple cars attempting to hold them up. With the Cowboy's help, Dooley is able to arrive in time to save the armored car from a guided missile strike and foil a final attack from Klepper and Lazarus with his illegal .50 caliber handgun (Dooley tells The Cowboy that they only used the gun to hunt Buffalo "up close", and that its only legal in two states, but California wasn't one of them). O'Connell, a willing partner of Carlino's, no longer willing to abide the scheme after Carlino threatened to hurt Maggie if he didn't co-operate with the robbery, arrives having captured Carlino and his associates, the two detectives (Rizzo and Nedler) who originally framed Dooley and had him thrown off the police force. The criminals are arrested and the Police Chief (Bruce Kirby) invites Dooley back to the police force as a plain clothed detective... along with a reluctant Kane who wants to go back to the relative safety of being a lawyer.

The narrator (Stanley Jones) tells of an event that once threatened the existence of the entire human race. It occurred in "the most seemingly innocent and unlikely of places", Skid Row, in New York. Three teenage girls (Michelle Weeks, Tisha Campbell-Martin, and Tichina Arnold) appear throughout the film as a Motown-singing Greek chorus. They set the scene at the unassuming Mushnick's Flower Shop ("Little Shop of Horrors"). Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis), the meek, clumsy employee of Mr. Mushnick (Vincent Gardenia), lives a dreary life among the other unfortunate residents of Skid Row ("Skid Row/Downtown"). Taken in by Mushnick as a young orphan, Seymour lives in a tiny room below the flower shop and is treated fairly poorly by his employer. The light of his life is his co-worker, Audrey (Ellen Greene), a fragile, battered woman stuck in an abusive relationship. The flower shop is making virtually no money, and Mr. Mushnick is on the verge of closing it for good when Audrey mentions the strange and interesting new plant Seymour has been developing, and suggests that if it is properly advertised, it might attract more business. Seymour presents the plant, a large bud surrounded by layers of leaves. Mushnick is pleasantly surprised when customers begin flocking in after seeing the little plant in the window. Seymour has no idea what kind of plant it is, but explains how he got it ("Da Doo"): While he was shopping for odd new plants, his hobby, a solar eclipse occurred. After daylight returned, the strange plant seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Seymour bought it for cheap and brought it home to examine. He shyly admits that he named it "Audrey II." The shop is doing record business until the plant begins to wither. Seymour frantically tries to nurse it back to health, though water, sunlight, fertilizer, and minerals have done no good ("Grow For Me"). When he pricks his finger on a rose thorn and draws blood, Audrey II responds vigorously. Seymour realizes what it lives on, and reluctantly gives it a few drops. Audrey II has a dramatic growth spurt and business picks up, with Seymour becoming a local celebrity ("Some Fun Now"). He does not reveal the secret behind the plant's health. Audrey's boyfriend, Orin Scrivello (Steve Martin), is a sadistic dentist with a leather jacket, motorcycle, and ducktail haircut. He adores his profession because of the constant opportunities to inflict pain on others ("Dentist!"). He enhances his pleasure through his habit of huffing nitrous oxide, or "giggle gas", for a euphoric high. Seymour and Mushnick are concerned, as Audrey often comes to work with injuries or a black eye. Orin arrives at the shop one night to pick up Audrey, and Seymour sees first hand how roughly he treats her. Audrey, meanwhile, secretly dreams of an idyllic suburban life with Seymour ("Somewhere That's Green"), but is too frightened to leave Orin. Seymour angrily paces around the empty shop at night, venting his frustrations to Audrey II, who is now roughly the size of an armchair. To Seymour's great surprise, Audrey II responds with a human voice (Levi Stubbs) and demands more food. Knowing that the plant can no longer live on mere droplets of blood (partially because it is too big, and partially because Seymour is now weak and anemic from feeding the plant from his bleeding fingers), Seymour is reluctant to provide it with bigger portions. The smooth-talking Audrey II promises Seymour money, fame, and the girl of his dreams if he continues to nourish it with human blood ("Feed Me (Git It)"). Seymour initially refuses to murder for the benefit of Audrey II, reasoning that he doesn't know anyone "who deserves to get chopped up and fed to a hungry plant." Audrey II directs him to the window, where he sees Orin assaulting Audrey across the street. Filled with rage, Seymour agrees to bring back a specific meal for the plant. The next day, Seymour goes to Orin's office with a gun in his coat pocket. The patient before him, Arthur Denton (Bill Murray) is a gleeful masochist who frustrates Orin by actually enjoying the oral torture he receives. After Denton's departure, Orin drags Seymour into his office to get the sadistic fix he had been craving. Though he wants to spare Audrey further pain and has promised Audrey II fresh blood, Seymour is terrified of shooting Orin. Conveniently, Orin dons his special gas mask, which provides him with constant nitrous oxide and increases his sadistic pleasure. The mask malfunctions and Seymour watches his nemesis asphyxiate before his eyes. Seymour drags the body back to the flower shop, where he reluctantly chops it up with an axe and feeds it piece by piece to Audrey II. Seymour is understandably shaken by the incident, and sees the police speaking with Audrey the next morning about Orin's disappearance. He tries to comfort Audrey, telling her that she had deserved a better man all along. While Audrey admits that her low self-esteem kept her tied to Orin, she feels partially responsible for his fate because she had been silently wishing him out of her life. Though he does not reveal the truth about what became of Orin, Seymour promises to stand by Audrey no matter what ("Suddenly Seymour"). Invigorated from finally winning Audrey's love, Seymour returns to the flower shop. He is confronted by Mushnick, who had seen Seymour dismembering Orin's body the night before. Mushnick assumes that Seymour's devotion to Audrey caused him to murder the cruel dentist, but does not suspect that Audrey II is involved, and knows nothing of its grisly diet. Mushnick leads Seymour upstairs at gunpoint, planning to turn him in to the police. He then offers Seymour a proposition: Seymour leaves town forever, and Mushnick keeps the money-making plant. As Audrey II coaxes Seymour to sacrifice Mushnick to clear his own name ("Suppertime"), Seymour nervously backs Mushnick into the gaping maw of the hungry plant, killing two birds with one stone. With Audrey II grown to enormous proportions, Seymour's celebrity increases ("The Meek Shall Inherit"). However, he is miserable and terrified of the plant's eating habits getting out of hand. He begins to fend off the media and turn down large sums of money, feeling guilty for his part in the secret deaths of Audrey II's meals. He finally puts his foot down, denying the plant any further feedings. He and Audrey plan to run away that night and get married, escaping Skid Row forever. However, he buckles when Audrey II seemingly agrees to accept some meat from the butcher instead of a human corpse. Seymour falls for the ruse and leaves the shop. The plant, with its fully mobile tendrils, uses the phone to call Audrey's apartment across the street, begging for water. Audrey, in her wedding dress, comes to oblige, and is amazed that the huge plant can talk. As she fetches the watering can, the plant wraps its vines around her legs and drags her into its mouth ("Suppertime II"). Seymour returns just in time to save Audrey from being devoured. Outside the shop, he explains how dangerous the plant is, and how he only kept it because he thought Audrey would cease to like him if he were no longer rich and famous. Audrey assures Seymour that she loved him from the moment she met him, and still does. They are interrupted by a salesman (James Belushi) who shares with Seymour his idea of collecting trimmings from the plant and marketing miniature Audrey IIs all over the country. Seymour deducts that this was the plant's plan all along: It was an alien that came to earth during the solar eclipse and was bent on world domination. He rushes back into the shop for a final showdown with Audrey II. The plant thwarts Seymour's efforts at killing it, and begins to taunt him as its branches destroy the building and new buds begin to bloom ("Mean Green Mother from Outer Space"). Emerging from the rubble, Seymour grabs a live electric wire and touches it to Audrey II's vine, electrocuting it and causing it to explode into nothing. Seymour and Audrey are married and arrive at their suburban dream home, just as Audrey had imagined. As they enter the front door, a baby Audrey II plant is seen in their garden, a tiny smile on its pod.

Montgomery "Monty" Brewster (Richard Pryor) is a second-rate minor league baseball pitcher with the Hackensack Bulls. One night after winning a game, Monty and his best friend, the Bulls' catcher, Spike Nolan (John Candy), are flirting with two women at a local bar. When they try to leave with them, they're confronted by two large men who claim they are the women's husbands. Monty and Spike are punched out by the men and a large bar brawl starts. They are later arrested and thrown in jail. Their coach, Charley (Jerry Orbach), tells them that management has decided to kick them off the team. In court, Monty tries to explain the fight to the judge, who is wholly unsympathetic. A photographer that had been following Monty (whom Monty thought may be a professional baseball scout) suddenly rises and tells the judge that he represents an unidentified party that will post bail for both Monty and Spike if they plead guilty. The photographer, named J.B. Donaldo (Joe Grifasi) takes Monty and Spike to New York City with him. At the Manhattan law office of Granville & Baxter, Brewster is told that his recently deceased great-uncle Rupert Horn (Hume Cronyn), whom he has never met, has left him his entire fortune because Monty is his only living blood relative (by way of Monty's grandmother, Rupert's half-sister), but with several conditions. Rupert's last will is on film and features the wheezy and ill-tempered Rupert himself. He relates a story from his youth where his father made him smoke a whole box of cigars to punish him for smoking just one. Rupert tells Monty that he wants to teach Monty to hate spending money. Monty will be given $30 million to spend in 30 days. If he's successful, he'll be awarded the full inheritance of $300 million. Brewster is challenged to either take $1 million upfront (as part of a "Wimp" clause), or spend $30 million in 30 days. If he chooses the former, the law firm becomes executor of the estate and divides the money among various charities (after taking a sizable fee). In the latter case, he must spend the entire $30 million within one month under the following rules: 1.) With the exception of those who witnessed the will reading, whom are the firm's two senior partners George Granville (David White) and Norris Baxter (Jerome Dempsey) and Rupert's lawyer and executor of the estate Edward Roundfield (Pat Hingle), Brewster cannot reveal to anyone the will's terms. He may only tell everyone else he inherited $30 million. Rupert doesn't want anyone directly helping Monty in his quest. 2.) Brewster must spend the money on tangible items. If anything he buys accrues value, such as an investment or property that earns money, that is considered part of the money he inherited and he must spend that as well. 3.) Directly giving away money is capped at 10%; split between 5% ($1.5 million) in gambling losses and another 5% ($1.5 million) maximum to be donated to charity. 4.) Brewster may not willfully damage or destroy anything he buys with the money. 5.) After 30 days, he must be penniless and may not own any assets that are not already his (in other words, nothing but "the clothes on his back"). If any one of these five rules are violated, the challenge is forfeited. Also, if Brewster fails to meet the 30 day challenge to spend the $30 million, any remaining money that he has after the 30 day deadline (regardless if it's a few dollars or a few million dollars) will go to the law firm and Brewster will inherit nothing. Despite the tempting offer just to "wimp out" and walk away with a one-time payment of $1 million, especially after the law firm reveals that they already did a background check on him and showed that the highest annual salary he ever earned was $11,000-a-year while a member of the Toledo Mud Hens, Monty decides to take the $30 million challenge. After leaving the offices, Monty goes to a bank across the street where the money is waiting for him in cash. He appoints Spike as the vice president of an investment corporation he's building and hires one of the bank's security guards as his personal guard for the next month. He also asks to rent the bank vault where the cash is stored and is granted a 30-day lease and refuses an account that will earn him interest. On the street, Monty hires a Russian taxi driver (Yakov Smirnov) to be his personal driver. He has the cabbie rent a fleet of limousines and other drivers. He takes everyone in earshot out for an expensive dinner in Manhattan. At dinner he talks with the accountant that Granville and Baxter have assigned to him, Angela Drake (Lonette McKee), an attractive woman and law student clerking in the firm, who Monty is instantly smitten with. Monty tries to convince her that he's not another newly rich snob and asks her out, thinking he can hire someone to do her work for her. He is coldly rebuffed by Angela, who has a fiance, Warren (a junior partner at the law firm). Monty rents a large penthouse in the Plaza Hotel and a large amount of office space in the same building, beating the rental fee proposed by another client. He has also hired a couple of high-priced tailors to make custom suits for him, renting the clothes themselves. With the salary that Monty is paying him, Spike fixes himself up. Down in the new office that Monty is renting, he meets Angela's boyfriend Warren (Stephen Collins) and his former wife Marilyn, whom Monty has hired to redecorate the office space. (Over the next few weeks, Monty changes his mind several times regarding the stylistic choices Marilyn presents to him, thereby using up more of his inheritance.) In Monty's office over the next few days are hundreds of people looking to either do business with Monty or scam him. One man has an investment offer; a large iceberg will be outfitted with giant engines and be sailed to the Middle East where the ice will be used to supply water to the farmers in the region. Monty is also allowed to gamble 5% of his $30 million, so he hires a bookie to bet on every long shot racehorse he can and even puts down a sizable amount on the field hockey team of Drake's alma mater, Loyola University. Monty calls his old Bulls coach and tells him he plans to fix up their old playing field in Hackensack and that he'll arrange a three-inning exhibition game where the Bulls will play the New York Yankees. Monty continues his spending campaign for a few weeks. One night he's inspired by an idea from Spike to invest in expensive items like stamps. Monty goes to a fine collectibles store and asks to see the most expensive stamp the owner has. The stamp is the infamous Inverted Jenny which Monty buys for $1,250,000. Granville and Baxter read the story in the newspaper, thinking Monty has flagrantly violated the terms of the will. Baxter finds a postcard in the daily mail that has a photo of the Hackensack Bulls and a bland message from Monty. After a few moments, Baxter realizes that Monty has used the Inverted Jenny stamp to mail the card, thereby making it their property and devaluing it. Both men are furious and have a private meeting with Warren where they show him the will (the conditions of not revealing the $30 million spending plan in 30 days does not apply to the others of the will reading). They then order him to cause a small error in bookkeeping amounting to $20,000 that will be discovered at the last moment. They promise Warren that he'll be made full partner and that Monty's real $300 million inheritance will go to the firm. Spike and the rest of Monty's friends and associates become very worried about Monty's frivolous spending and try to convince him to curtail it. They go so far to trick Monty into meeting Spike's financial adviser, Eugene (David Wohl), who tells Monty that he'll only require a modest fee of any earnings that pay off. Monty hires him on the spot and shows some resentment toward Angela for tricking him. When Monty finds out that the iceberg investment has turned out to be lucrative, he immediately wants to sell his stock in it. Moments later, the bookie he hired storms in and furiously tells him he's won a large amount of money on all the long shot bets he placed and that he's banned from any more gambling in New York. Monty decides to donate the money he won to charity. Note: the amount that Monty wins, ($1,500,000) is all of the 5% of the $30 million that he can be allowed to donate. Spike and Eugene, both rush into Monty's office one day with exciting news. Spike had invested a large amount of Monty's money in a venture and earned Monty's company $10 million. Monty becomes upset, realizing that he's "right back where he started" and orders everyone out of his office. On television, he sees a news commentary about New York's upcoming mayoral election. The reporter says that his news station has chosen not to endorse either of the sleazy, possibly mob-funded candidates. Monty enters the race himself, declaring a ticket called "None of the Above" where he wants to buy the votes of New York. The campaign involves a large amount of advertising, staffing and televised ads and drains much of the $30 million in a short amount of time. Monty is unabashed in attacking his opponents openly, insulting them publicly in media spots and public appearances. When Monty's two opponents, Heller and Salvino, figure out that Monty's campaign could defeat them both, they both agree to sue him for libel. Monty settles out of court for $4 million. Meanwhile, Angela has grown increasingly cold toward Monty, thinking he's foolish for spending the $30 million so rapidly. Earlier, Monty had tried to give her a new Aston-Martin convertible -- a violation of the will that Monty can't tell Angela about. While he talks to her on the street, he's overseen by both Warren and Marilyn, who mistakenly assume Monty and Angela are having an affair. The day of the big Bulls vs. Yankees game arrives. At the game, the Bulls start out doing very well against the Yankees, until the Yanks battle back and defeat the Bulls early in the third inning, hitting a grand slam home run off Monty. Defeated, Monty leaves the game. In the locker room, Roundfield approaches Monty in the locker room and tells him that he is actually leading the election for mayor at the polls, but that if he wins the election, the $60,000 annual salary given to him as mayor could be considered an asset in accordance with the will. Monty announces to the crowd that he's withdrawing from the election. He also invites everyone to a final party which he'll pay for with his last $38,000. At the party, Monty plans to get very drunk. Spike and Melvin take up a small collection to give to Monty so he won't be flat broke. Monty refuses the money, knowing it would also violate the conditions of the will. Spike suggests that he and Monty buy a nice sports car and leave New York for a new life. Monty still turns him down. The next morning (on the 30th day), the landlord for Monty's offices and penthouse politely evicts him. The tailors take back all the clothes he rented and he finds his old Chicago Cubs jersey in the closet. He checks in on Marilyn, who'd finished the latest iteration of interior decorating of Monty's offices; she orders everything to be taken back when Monty tells her he approves of the work. Monty leaves the Plaza in his old street clothes and wanders off into Manhattan... alone. That evening, the local newscaster Chuck Fleming (Peter Jason), wondering where Monty has vanished to after declaring that he is now flat broke, announces that the mayoral race will be held again in a run-off election after primary election results showed that Monty's campaign had worked to sink the campaigns of Heller and Salvino, with the voters indeed voted for "none of the above". The run-off election will be held in a few days with neither of Monty's opponents running for office ever again. At 11:50 pm, Monty reappears at Granville & Baxter to finalize the will, not a dime to his name. Before he enters the meeting with the two, he's stopped by Warren who eagerly gives him the $20,000 he'd withheld. Monty is immediately upset, believing he'd lost and, with the clock about to strike the midnight deadline, agrees to sign whatever paperwork the two men have. While Warren watches, Angela suddenly appears. Warren discloses the conditions of Monty's will and shows her the furniture company receipt she'd missed for the money he'd given Monty. Angela is furious and rushes in to stop Monty from turning over the money to the firm, saying that Warren had cheated him, drawing an immediate termination from her bosses. Warren tells Monty and Angela that he'd suspected they'd been having an affair all along and Angela tries to hit him. Monty stops her and punches Warren himself, which Warren promises to sue him for. When offered an out-of-court settlement for the money he'd been given, Warren refuses. Monty suddenly decides to hire Angela on retainer for $20,000. She frantically writes him a receipt by the stroke of midnight and Roundfeld declares Monty's inheritance complete. He also promises to investigate Granville and Baxter for any wrongdoing for revealing to Warren the terms of the will. Monty and Angela leave the office together where they agree to talk about his legal options and of his new inheritance.

An overworked and exhausted air-traffic controller takes his family on a long-awaited beach vacation but is soon beset by a series of mishaps. Jack Chester, an overworked air traffic controller, takes his family on vacation to the beach. Things immediately start to go wrong for the Chesters, and steadily get worse. Jack ends up in a feud with a local yachtsman, and has to race him to regain his pride and family's respect. —Rob Hartill

A clumsy chauffeur is hypnotized by a cult to kill the father of his fiancée, a congressman who's suing the cult for fraud, and encounters several weird characters during the days leading up to his wedding. Limo driver John Bourgignon is engaged to Nancy Reese. Her father, Congressman Ed Reese, is running for president and crusading against cult leader Sun Yi. Misadventure and intrigue stalk John and Nancy's path to the altar. —Anonymous

When John Winger loses his job, apartment and girlfriend all in a day, he decides to join the army. He and his friend Russell figure they can help save the world...and meet girls!

The film opens with several aerial shots of the factories and oil refineries around Chicago at night as the images pan overhead to a prison. We next see a prisoner being roused and escorted by two guards through Joliet Prison in Illinois. Is he on his way to the gallows? No, he's up for "standard parole". His personal items are returned to him, including a broken watch and prophylactics. The prisoner is released -- it is Jake (John Belushi). He meets his brother Elwood (Dan Akroyd) outside the prison gate. These are the Blues Brothers. Elwood has shown up in a used Plymouth police car after having traded in their old Cadillac for a microphone. Demonstrating the power of the car, with its cop tires, cop suspension, and 440 cubic-inch power plant, Elwood convinces Jake that this is the new Bluesmobile. They go see the "Penguin", Sister Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman), the head nun at the Catholic orphanage they grew up in in downtown Chicago. She explains that they need $5,000 to pay property taxes, or else the orphanage will be closed by the local Archbishop. Aghast at Jake and Elwood's casual swearing, she beats them with a yardstick and throws them out of her office saying she'll pray for their souls and not to return until they've "redeemed" themselves. Jake and Elwood meet up with their old friend and father figure Curtis (Cab Calloway), a handyman who operates the orphanage who advises them to "get yourself to church". They go to a Baptist church, where Reverend Cleophus James (James Brown) delivers an uplifting sermon. Jake "sees the light" realizing that he must put the Blues Brothers Band back together in order to raise the $5,000. Now they are on a mission from God. That evening during a drive about how to get their old band back together, Elwood runs a red light and the Bluesmobile gets pulled over by a local state trooper police car. The two State Troopers Daniel (Armand Cerami) and Mount (Steven Williams) ask for Elwood's driver's license and registration. Through SCMODS (State County Municipal Offender Database System), the officers learn that Elwood has numerous outstanding traffic tickets and moving violations. The police intend to impound the car, but Elwood takes off, leading to a car chase. Another State trooper car driven by Trooper La Fong (director John Landis) and a "charming Trooper" (Stephen Bishop) joins in on the chase. The Blues Brothers get away (destroying a shopping mall in the process by driving through it), but now the Illinois authorities are searching for them. Both Troopers Daniel and Mount vow to catch or kill the Blues Brothers. Jake and Elwood park their car in a run-down part of the Loop of downtown Chicago where they walk to a fleabag hotel where Elwood is staying. A mystery woman (Carrie Fisher) attempts to kill Jake by firing a rocket launcher at him, but the Blues Brothers duck and the rockets miss. The woman drives away in a red Cadillac. Unfazed, Jake and Elwood enter the hotel (populated by homeless transients). Elwood asks the manager Floyd if there were any phone calls. The manager says no calls but a man named Burton Mercer (John Candy), a local corrections and parole officer, visited looking for Elwood. Jake and Elwood then go to Elwood's small room that sits right near the local L-train line where Jake falls asleep in Elwood's bed. The next morning, the mystery woman arrives at the fleabag hotel just as Troopers Daniel and Mount show up along with Burton Mercer who ID's the correct home address of Elwood. The unknown woman then blows up the entire hotel building with a bomb, but Jake and Elwood walk away from the rubble (as do the cops who were just about to apprehend them). Trying to find their old band members, who have since taken other jobs, they visit a boarding house where one of the members had previously stayed. The landlady doesn't remember where he went, but at the last minute she finds a business card with "Murph and the Magic Tones" on it. That evening, Jake and Elwood find Murph and the Magic Tones playing at a Holiday Inn Hotel lounge whom makes up of keyboardist/lead vocalist Murphy Dunne, guitarist Steve Cropper, guitarist Donald 'Duck' Dunn, drummer Willy Hall, and sax player Tom Malone. During drinks, they agree to rejoin the Blues Brothers Band but demand the money that Jake and Elwood owes them from past gigs. Jake and Elwood visit the swanky Chez Paul restaurant, where another band member and former trumpet player, Alan 'Mr. Fabulous' Rubin, is maitre'd. The brothers behave offensively while eating a meal, tossing food and offering to buy women. Promising that they'll be back to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day at this restaurant until he joins them, Mr. Fabulous reluctantly agrees. The next day, while tooling around in the Bluesmobile, the guys get stuck in a traffic jam. Some Neo-Nazis are protesting on a stone bridge. Proclaiming "I hate Illinois Nazis", Elwood uses the Bluesmobile to force the Nazis to jump off the bridge. The humiliated lead Nazi (Henry Gibson) vows to find those guys and brutally kill them... further adding to the Blues Brothers ever growing list of enemies. Jake and Elwood arrive in a seedy area of Maxwell Street where they park their car and see John Lee Hooker as he plays outside a soul food restaurant. Inside the restaurant, the brothers meet Matt 'Guitar' Murphy, as well as 'Blue Lou' Marini to ask them to rejoin their band. Matt's wife (Aretha Franklin) sings "Think", warning Matt to think about it before leaving the restaurant they own. Matt and Lou quit, and the band is complete. Meanwhile, the mystery woman that is hounding Jake and Elwood is revealed to work and own a local beauty salon. After the salon closes for the night, she reads up in a book on how to operate a flame thrower. The next morning, the band's first stop is Ray's Music Exchange in Calumet City. The proprietor Ray (Ray Charles) shows off the action in a keyboard, singing "Shake A Tail Feather". The band buys $1,400 worth of instruments, on an I.O.U. While driving aimlessly that evening, the Blues Brother's first gig is at Bob's Country Bunker, where the Good Old Boys are scheduled to play. Passing themselves off as the Good Old Boys, the Blues Brothers manage to play both types of music (Country and Western). They earn $200, but drink $300 worth of beer. They skip out on paying. Now Jake and Elwood have yet another set of enemies, that of the bar owner Bob (Jeff Morris) and Tucker McElroy (Charles Napier) the lead singer of the late-arriving Good Old Boys. They get away when the pursuing truck is T-boned by State Troopers Daniel and Mount who have spotted the Bluesmobile. Daniel and Mount place Bob, Tucker, and the Good Old Boys under arrest for speeding and damaging their police car as Mount deadpans, "boys, you are in big trouble". In a sauna the next day, Jake and Elwood have a business meeting with promoter Maury Sline (Steve Lawrence) who agrees to book the Palace Hotel Ballroom for them tomorrow night. The word goes out on the streets -- Jake and Elwood swipe an enormous air-raid siren, strap it to the roof of the Bluesmobile, and use it as a loudspeaker to make announcements throughout the city about the upcoming concert. They run out of gas. The local gas station is also out of gas. Elwood flirts with a chic lady (Twiggy) while waiting for the tanker truck to arrive. The Blues Brothers Band play their concert at the Palace Hotel, beginning with Curtis as an opening act sings "Minnie The Moocher" as they wait for Jake and Elwood to arrive. Having heard about the concert, the authorities lead by Jake's parole officer, Burton Mercer, along with Troopers Daniel and Mount, stake out the joint, planning to apprehend them after the show. Bob, Tucker and the Good Old Boys, having just made bail, also see the advertisement and show up at the concert vowing to kill both Jake and Elwood. Jake and Elwood sneak past the cops and join the band. The crowd is unmoved at first but are soon cheering. The band plays so well that backstage a producer for a major record company offers them $10,000 cash as an advance on their first recording session. Jake and Elwood accept the offer and keep $5,000, asking the producer to send $1,400 to Ray's Music Exchange and to give the rest to the band. The brothers take off through a trap door in the stage while the band continues vamping. The mystery woman confronts them in an underground tunnel, firing an automatic M-16 rifle at them. It is revealed here that the mystery woman is Jake's former fiancee whom he abandoned at her wedding several years ago and she wants to personally kill Jake for her humiliation. Pleading for his life, Jake removes his sunglasses for the first (and only) time in the film. She melts, smiles "oh, Jake", and kisses him. He pushes her to the ground, saying "let's go". The police begin realizing the brothers are making their escape. Jake and Elwood are in the Bluesmobile with 106 miles to get to Chicago, a full tank of gas, a half pack of cigarettes, at night, and they're wearing sunglasses. An epic and climatic car chase begins as the Blues Brothers head towards Chicago to pay the taxes. Bob, Tucker and the Good Old Boys join in on the chase, but Elwood had earlier sabotaged their trailer by spraying super glue to the gas/accelerator peddle which causes Tucker to loose control of the trailer and crashes it into a nearby pond. In the morning, numerous police cars tumble off an embankment, and one (driven by Troopers Daniel, Mount and Burton) ends up in a truck. As they approach the city, all city police authorities are alerted and "the use of excessive force is approved" in their apprehension. The chase continues in Chicago, reaching speeds of 110 mph on Lower Wacker Drive. Dozens of police cars continue to pile up. Hearing chatter on the police radios, the Nazis spot the Bluesmobile and give chase. The Bluesmobile stops at the edge of a highway overpass under construction, but the car with the lead Nazi tumble over the edge. Jake and Elwood arrive at Daley Plaza just in time, as their car literally falls apart. The police buildup continues absurdly, with National Guard units, helicopters, and SWAT teams getting involved. Jake and Elwood hastily make their way to the Cook County Assessor's Office, barring doors and sabotaging an elevator on the way. Hundreds of troops are in pursuit. In the assessor's office they grab the clerk (a cameo by Steven Spielberg) and give him the money to pay the taxes. The moment the tax receipt is handed to them they are handcuffed, surrounded by countless troops with pointed firearms. The film closes with the Blues Brothers and their Band playing their next concert in prison, beginning with "Jailhouse Rock".