Saturday Night Live in the mid-70s was a powder keg of ego, talent, and sheer, unadulterated chaos. At the center of it were two guys who couldn't have been more different if they tried. Chevy Chase was the dashing, pratfalling leading man who thought he was the smartest person in any room. Dan Aykroyd was the gearhead, the "Blues Brother," the guy who obsessed over police scanners and paranormal activity. When you look back at the roster of Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase movies, it’s weird to think they only headlined a few major projects together. They were the architects of a specific kind of American humor that bridged the gap between the counterculture 60s and the corporate 80s.
Honestly, it’s a miracle they worked together at all. Chevy was the first to leave SNL, chasing movie stardom and becoming a household name while the rest of the cast was still figuring out their blocking. Aykroyd stayed, built a legacy with John Belushi, and eventually became the industry's most reliable high-concept writer. But when their orbits collided on the big screen, the result was a strange, often misunderstood brand of comedy that relied on the friction between Chevy’s smugness and Dan’s intense, rapid-fire technical delivery.
The Cold War Classic: Spies Like Us
You can’t talk about Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase movies without starting with Spies Like Us. Released in 1985 and directed by John Landis, this film is basically the peak of their shared screen time. It’s a movie that shouldn’t work. The plot is a mess of Cold War tropes, involving two incompetent government employees—Emmett Fitz-Hume (Chase) and Austin Millbarge (Aykroyd)—who are used as decoys to distract the Soviets while real spies do the heavy lifting.
Chevy plays Fitz-Hume exactly how you’d expect: he’s a low-level sleaze who tries to cheat on his Foreign Service exam using a variety of increasingly ridiculous gadgets. Aykroyd is Millbarge, a brilliant but stuck-in-the-basement technical whiz who actually wants to be a hero. The magic is in the contrast. While Chevy is busy trying to charm his way out of a Siberian prison, Dan is reciting technical manuals or explaining the physics of a nuclear silo.
One of the best scenes is the "Doctor, Doctor" sequence. It’s a rhythmic, nonsensical bit of improv where they meet a group of real doctors in a tent and everyone just starts greeting each other. It’s stupid. It’s brilliant. It’s exactly what made 80s comedy feel so alive. They weren't just reading lines; they were two veteran performers who knew how to play off each other's timing.
Landis, who also directed The Blues Brothers and Animal House, knew how to handle these egos. He let them breathe. Spies Like Us was a massive box office hit, grossing over $60 million domestically—a huge sum for 1985—but critics weren't always kind. They called it bloated. Maybe it was. But for a generation of kids watching on VHS, it was the gold standard for buddy comedies.
The Weirdest Movie Ever Made: Nothing But Trouble
If Spies Like Us was the commercial peak, Nothing But Trouble (1991) was the experimental valley. This is the movie people usually forget when discussing Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase movies, mostly because it’s so profoundly bizarre that the human brain might subconsciously try to erase it as a survival mechanism.
✨ Don't miss: Cuba Gooding Jr OJ: Why the Performance Everyone Hated Was Actually Genius
Aykroyd wrote and directed this one. It’s his fever dream brought to life. Chevy plays a wealthy financial publisher who takes a wrong turn and ends up in a decaying, booby-trapped village called Valkenvania. Aykroyd plays Judge Alvin "J.P" Valkenheiser, a 106-year-old local magistrate with a prosthetic nose that looks suspiciously like a certain part of the male anatomy.
It was a disaster at the box office. It cost roughly $40 million and barely made $8 million back. Warner Bros. didn't know how to market it. Is it a horror movie? A comedy? A cautionary tale about New Jersey?
Watching it now, you see the pure Aykroyd DNA. It’s got Digital Underground featuring a young Tupac Shakur performing in a courtroom. It’s got giant, man-baby twins named Bobo and Lil' Debbull. It’s gross, it’s loud, and it’s totally unique. Chevy, for his part, plays the "straight man," though his version of a straight man is still deeply cynical and detached. While the movie effectively killed Aykroyd’s directing career, it has become a massive cult classic for people who love "ugly" cinema. It represents the last time these two SNL titans shared a massive, big-budget stage together in such a prominent way.
Why the Pairing Worked (And Why It Didn't)
Comedy duos usually rely on a "Straight Man" and a "Funny Man." Think Abbott and Costello. With Dan and Chevy, it wasn't that simple. They were both "Funny Men," just in different registers.
Aykroyd is an actor who disappears into a role, even when he’s just playing a variation of himself. He’s all about the details—the badges, the jargon, the fast-talking "Crystal Head Vodka" energy he brings to everything. Chevy Chase, conversely, is always Chevy Chase. Whether he’s Clark Griswold or Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher, you are watching Chevy.
The friction between Aykroyd's world-building and Chevy's "too cool for school" persona created a specific tension. In Spies Like Us, it works because they are both out of their depth. In Nothing But Trouble, the tension is literal; the movie feels like it's fighting itself.
🔗 Read more: Greatest Rock and Roll Singers of All Time: Why the Legends Still Own the Mic
There were other brushes with collaboration. They both appeared in Caddyshack II (1988), though that’s a movie most fans—and the actors themselves—would probably prefer to ignore. Aykroyd played Captain Tom Everett, a cracked paramilitary type, while Chevy reprised his role as Ty Webb. They didn't share much meaningful screen time there, but it highlighted how much the industry wanted them to be a recurring duo.
The SNL Connection and Beyond
We have to look at their beginnings to understand the chemistry. In the early days of SNL, they weren't necessarily a "team" like Aykroyd and Belushi were. However, they were the anchors. Chevy was the breakout star of Season 1. When he left, Aykroyd became the soul of the show.
Their off-screen friendship has endured for decades, which is rare in an industry built on competition. They’ve appeared in documentaries together, done retrospectives, and even showed up on SNL for various anniversaries. That genuine rapport is why Spies Like Us feels like a hangout movie despite the high stakes of global nuclear war. You believe they actually know each other.
The Cultural Legacy of the Aykroyd-Chase Era
What do we actually get from Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase movies today? We get a blueprint for the modern ensemble comedy. Without the success of Spies Like Us, you don't get Step Brothers or Pineapple Express. It proved that you could take two lead-level comedians, put them in a high-stakes action setting, and let their personalities drive the narrative rather than the plot.
Critics often complain that these movies are "products of their time." Of course they are. They are fueled by 80s excess, synthesizer soundtracks, and a specific type of American bravado. But there’s a craftsmanship in Aykroyd’s writing and a physical precision in Chevy’s slapstick that you just don't see as often in the era of green screens and improvised riffs.
How to Revisit Their Work Today
If you're looking to dive back into this specific era of comedy, don't just stop at the movies they did together. To appreciate the duo, you have to see what they were doing separately at the same time.
💡 You might also like: Ted Nugent State of Shock: Why This 1979 Album Divides Fans Today
- Watch Spies Like Us first. It’s the most accessible and genuinely funny entry in their joint filmography. Pay attention to the way Aykroyd handles the technical dialogue—he’s not faking it; he actually cares about that stuff.
- Check out the SNL "Update" segments. Look for the few times they shared the desk or appeared in sketches together during the 1975-1976 season. The power dynamic is fascinating.
- Give Nothing But Trouble a chance. But do it with friends. It is a "party movie" in the sense that you need people around to confirm that what you are seeing is actually happening.
- Look for the cameos. Their small overlap in Casper (1995) or the aforementioned Caddyshack II shows how they became elder statesmen of the genre, even when the projects weren't Oscar-worthy.
Actionable Steps for Comedy Fans
If you want to truly understand the impact of these two icons, you shouldn't just watch the movies. You should look at the craft behind them.
Research the "Landis Style." John Landis was the glue for many of these projects. Understanding his approach to "chaos cinema" explains why Spies Like Us feels so much larger than a standard sitcom.
Compare the archetypes. Take a movie like Ghostbusters (Aykroyd) and Fletch (Chase). Notice how Aykroyd builds a world with rules, while Chase thrives in a world where he is the only one who knows it’s a joke. When they meet in the middle, that's where the "Aykroyd-Chase" magic lives.
Support the physical media. Many of these films, especially the deeper cuts like Nothing But Trouble, have incredible Blu-ray releases from boutique labels like Shout! Factory. These often include interviews where the actors talk about the grueling shoots and the practical effects that have since been replaced by CGI.
The era of Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase movies represents a specific window in Hollywood history where the weird kids from late-night TV were handed the keys to the kingdom. They didn't always make "perfect" movies, but they made interesting ones. In a world of sanitized, committee-driven comedy, that’s something worth holding onto.