Blues vocalist and petty criminal "Joliet" Jake Blues is paroled on Good conduct time grounds from Joliet Correctional Center after serving three years of a five-year sentence, and is picked up by his blood brother Elwood in his Bluesmobile, a battered, decommissioned police car. Elwood demonstrates its capabilities by jumping an open drawbridge. The brothers visit the Roman Catholic orphanage where they were raised, and learn from Sister Mary "the Penguin" Stigmata and old friend Curtis that it will be closed unless $5,000 in property taxes is collected. During a sermon by the Reverend Cleophus James at the Triple Rock Missionary Baptist Church, Jake has an idea: they can re-form their band, "The Blues Brothers" – which disbanded while Jake was in prison – and raise the money to save the orphanage.
