20 Things You Didn't Know About The Blues Brothers
10. All The High-Speed And Stunt Driving Was Real
The chases and crashes in the film are as much a part of the movie as the musical numbers. You can't create that much sheer destruction on a screen without a ton of good drivers; the production employed a stunt driving team of 40.
There were no models, no camera tricks; just very brave, very skilled people wheeling cars at high speed to accomplish everything from Elwood's skid-into-the-spot parking job at Chez Paul to the all-night chase down the highway and into Chicago.
The studio purchased 60 soon to be retired California Highway Patrol cars for chase scenes, and repainted them with the proper markings of the Chicago Police department and Illinois State police. None of them made it through filming without some damage and many were completely destroyed.
For one memorable scene that you would swear was sped up footage, Landis had to get special permission to do a high-speed pass at 118 mph / 190 kph under the elevated train lines. The speed shown during the chase on the speedometer was accurate. He was given two cracks at it by the city.
The first run featured just the car; the second run included stuntmen pedestrians for realism.
Take that CGI.