Austin Powers series

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The Austin Powers series is a series of comedy films that star Mike Myers as the title character. The series spoofs primarily the James Bond, Derek Flint, Harry Palmer, and Matt Helm franchises, and incorporates myriads of other elements of popular culture.

The three films, in the order of their release, are Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in Goldmember.

The films poke fun at the outrageous plots, rampant sexual innuendo, and one-dimensional stock characters characteristically associated with '60s spy films, as well as the cliché of the ultra-suave male superspy. Contrary to the handsome, super-smooth leading men of the James Bond genre, Powers is repeatedly emphasized as being highly unattractive (he is especially known for his bad teeth) and dorky in the extreme.

Contents

[edit] Characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
  • Austin Powers (Mike Myers) - A secret agent cryogenically frozen in 1967 and defrosted in 1997 in order to battle his arch enemy, Dr. Evil. Austin embodies all that is groovy in 1960s Britain and is irresistible to women, even when he experiences culture shock after being tossed into 1997, and even when he loses his 'mojo' (the mystical libido-enhancing secret to Powers' sexual success) in the second film.
  • Basil Exposition (Michael York) - Basil is apparently in charge of the British secret service. Basil comes up with all kinds of gadgets to help Austin complete the mission. He is a parody of the Q and M characters from the Bond series, and his surname ('Exposition') is a play on a common movie convention, 'exposition', which is the conveyance of critical elements of plot through dialogue. Originally presented as being somewhat obsequious towards Austin, in the second and third movies he has been rather more authoritative and competent.
  • Fat Bastard (Mike Myers) - An extremely obese Scottish henchman of Dr. Evil. In the second movie, he steals Austin's "mojo." But his greatest accomplishment, aside from infiltrating the Ministry of Defence as a piper, is becoming a famous sumo wrestler. A parody of minor 'hench' characters from many James Bond movies, most of which have unusual names (such as Oddjob and Jaws. It is also possible this could be a pun of That Yellow Bastard from the Sin City graphic novels (related in name only). However, Fat Bastard loses a lot of weight by the end of the third movie, a self-reported 180lbs, leaving him with a lot of excess skin, and a neck that he says resembles a vagina.
  • Ivana Humpalot (Kristen Johnston) - A stereotypical Russian woman. She meets Austin during a photo shoot, then plays a seductive game of chess with him. Is close to Xenia Onatopp from GoldenEye in the James Bond series. Some suggest that Ivana Humpalot is a parallel to Ivana Trump.
  • Johann van der Smut, or Goldmember (Mike Myers) - A parody of Bond villain Auric Goldfinger, he has a fetish for gold and is almost always surrounded by it. He got his nickname after losing his genitalia in an "unfortunate schmelting" accident. He tries to help Dr. Evil drive a gold meteor into the Earth. The Dr. himself finds Goldmember's strange habits disturbing: Goldmember is obsessed with eating his own flaking skin. Van der Smut is a stereotypical Dutchman, often mispronouncing words of the English language, most notably when he tries to say "father," but pronounces it as "fahjha".
  • Mini-Me (Verne Troyer) - Dr. Evil's pint-sized clone who first appears in the second film. The silent Mini-Me is always there for Dr. Evil through the roughest times, except when he takes Austin's side later in the trilogy. The little clone has frequent conflicts with Scott Evil, but loves chocolate and Mini Mr. Bigglesworth (the mini clone of Dr. Evil's cat). He is a reference to Bond villain sidekick Nick Nack. The Character also bears resemblance to a character in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996 film) Dr. Moreau had a small lemur-like character side kick that dressed the same as he did and did not talk.
  • Mr. Bigglesworth - Mr. Bigglesworth used to be Dr. Evil's white Angora cat, but after a defrosting error by assassin Mustafa, wherein all of Mr. Bigglesworth's fur was removed and changing him into a Sphynx cat, devoid of bodily hair much as his owner. Mr. Bigglesworth is a similar cat to the feline pet of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, also a white Angora cat.
  • Mustafa (Will Ferrell) - An ex-assassin of Dr. Evil, appearing in the first and second movies. He can't resist being asked the same question three times. Recognizable by his red fez. Extremely difficult if not impossible to kill.
  • Number 2 (Robert Wagner) - Dr. Evil's most trusted ally. Number 2 is a parody of Emilio Largo, Ernst Stavro Blofeld's right-hand man. They share a distinctive eyepatch, and are both called mostly by their codename "Number 2", which they share. Rob Lowe portrays a younger Number 2 in the second film in the series, as well as in a flashback in the third film.
  • Patty O'Brien (Paul Dillon) - Dr. Evil's Irish henchman in the first movie. He is known for taking a charm from each of his victims and worries that Scotland Yard is "always after me lucky charms."
  • Random Task (Joe Son) - Dr. Evil's assassin in the first movie. Direct parody of Oddjob in the Bond movie Goldfinger. Aside from throwing a shoe as opposed to a bowler derby (apparently the former is not nearly as lethal as the latter). Random Task makes a cameo as an unseen character in the third film: this time, throwing a cupcake at the teenaged Dr. Evil.
  • Robin Swallows (née Spitz) (Gia Carides) - An employee of Dr. Evil, who encounters Austin in his apartment during a party. Her fate is a direct parody of that of Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) in the movie Thunderball. She is impossible to kill, she gets a knife in her back, machine gunned down, has a rocket shot at her stomach and falls from a high building.
  • Scott Evil (Seth Green) - The son of Dr. Evil, he believed he was created in a laboratory test tube. However, a family feud on the Jerry Springer Show reveals that he is the offspring of Dr. Evil and Frau Farbissina. Scott in the films is the result of an implied difficult childhood and fails to bond with Dr Evil. He makes several suggestions to improve his father's over-elaborate plans but has his advice constantly rejected. In the third film he suddenly turns evil when Dr. Evil is arrested, and at the end of the third film said the line that Dr Evil had said at the end of the first and second movie - "I'm gonna get you, Austin Powers!"
  • Unibrau A character that does not speak and is only seen in one scene. She met Frau Farbissina on the LPGA tour and they fell in love. She has a unibrow. In the German version of the movie the character was renamed 'Thea Waigel', which is a direct reference to the former German Secretary of Finance Theo Waigel, who was also known for his hairy eyebrows.

[edit] Box Office Reception

The first film in the series, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery cost $16.5 million, opened on May 2, 1997, and made a modest impact, grossing US$53 million in its North American release. The film was not a major success in theatres, but became a hit and cult classic on the home video market and cable television. In June 1999, the film spawned a sequel, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. This, however, was a huge box office hit, the third highest grossing film of the summer (Behind only Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and The Sixth Sense), earning US$206 million in its North American release. In its North American opening weekend it earned US$55 million (then the third biggest debut in box office history), and became the first movie sequel to outearn the original after only its first weekend. The 282% increase in total box office gross from the original to sequel is a feat matched only by Terminator 2: Judgment Day's 434% increase. A third film, Austin Powers in Goldmember, was released in 2002 to similar fanfare, earning US$213 million. The Austin Powers trilogy is one of the few movie series in which every sequel has outearned the film that preceded it, along with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Saw (film series), the Desperado series and the X-Men series. As of 2006, a fourth installment in the series is in limbo, although comments made during the Special Features of the Goldmember DVD suggest that the series may not go beyond a trilogy.

[edit] Cars

There were two cars featured in the films both called the "Shaguar", a play on "Jaguar". The cars were a Jaguar E Type and XK8 convertible. He is also seen driving a modern Volkswagen Beetle convertible in the second movie. In addition, Nigel Powers' car is a Mini, which is able to travel under water and has a license plate reading "GR8SHAG". Also there were two cars made by the MODB to transport Austin back in time.

[edit] Original sources

Mike Myers is a huge fan of Peter Sellers, his favourite films being Casino Royale and The Party. Influence from Seller's films are apparent throughout the Austin Powers films:

The notion of a Bond spoof is inspired by Casino Royale. The character of Austin Powers is inspired by Seller's character, Roger Danvers in There's a Girl in My Soup. The sequence in Goldmember, when Beyonce dubs what a character behind her is saying, is taken from After the Fox. The scene in the same film when Powers adjusts the fountain to make the statue urinate to a greater distance is taken from The Party.

Mike Myers himself has stated in interviews that the idea for Austin Powers came to him one night as he was driving home from hockey practice. His car radio was on, and as he was listening the song The Look of Love by Burt Bacharach began to play. As he heard the music the question "Where have all the swingers gone?" came to his mind, and he began to conceive the character who would become Austin Powers. The first phrase he thought the character might say was "Do I make you horny?" which later did indeed become a catch phrase for the character.

Powers' flamboyant appearance and overt flirtation is probably based on the debonair character, Roger Danvers played by Peter Sellers in the 1972 film There's a Girl in My Soup. The name Austin Powers may be inspired by the British Austin-Healey sports cars which were popular in the 1960s. He could also possibly be named after actor Austin Pendleton, who has crooked teeth and wears glasses similar to Powers in What's Up, Doc?.

Powers' "cover persona" (to hide his job as an international agent) is as a fashion photographer, which provides an opportunity in the first two films to satirize Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up as well as Dean Martin's Matt Helm character. The signature eye glasses hail from the Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) films, but most clearly the iconic look of Peter Sellers in the mid-60s, which is seen in Casino Royale. Appropriately, Caine played Austin's father, Nigel Powers, in Goldmember (and wore the original glasses from The Ipcress File).

Another major source of humour derives from Powers' having been cryogenically frozen in the 1960s and revived in the late 1990s (roughly parodying the 1966 spy series Adam Adamant Lives! about an Edwardian secret agent who was frozen) without having any sense whatsoever of changes that have occurred in society the intervening years...

"...but as long as people are still having promiscuous sex with many anonymous partners without protection while at the same time experimenting with mind-expanding drugs in a consequence-free environment, I'll be sound as a pound!" - Austin Powers.

Powers' nemesis is Dr. Evil, a character based on Blofeld of the Bond films. Other Bond inspired villains include Frau Farbissina, most probably based on From Russia with Loves Rosa Klebb; Dr. Evil's right hand man, Number 2, probably inspired by Thunderballs Emilio Largo and referring also to Number 2 in The Prisoner; Alotta Fagina, a pun on Goldfingers Pussy Galore; and Random Task, again a pun, this time on Goldfingers Oddjob. The figure "Goldmember" in the 2002-film (also the name of the film) is himself a stand-alone referral to the character Auric Goldfinger.

Michael York's character Basil Exposition is named Exposition because Basil literally provides the audience with the exposition of the plot. The name serves to parody M (or some other high ranking official) in the Bond movies who briefs Bond about his new mission. Like Basil, M makes use of sophisticated presentation devices and explains the "plot" and "characters". The Bond screenwriters often made these clunky scenes more entertaining by, for example, showing Bond being briefed in a secret cave in The Spy Who Loved Me) or by playing off Bond's one-upmanship with M.

As for the female lead characters, from "International Man of Mystery", Mrs. Kensington & her daughter Vanessa and the tight-fitting leather catsuits they wear are based on the female partners of John Steed, especially Diana Rigg's character Emma Peel) from The Avengers

Felicity Shagwell in The Spy Who Shagged Me is based on three characters: The first a stereotypical "hippie chick" from the 1960s. The name is based on the double-entendre inspired names of several female James Bond characters such as "Pussy Galore" and "Xenia Onatopp", also an American version of Modesty Blaise. Heather Graham also mentions on the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me DVD that her character is based on the title character played by Jane Fonda in 1968 film Barbarella.

Foxxy Cleopatra in Goldmember is clearly based on female characters from 1970's "Blaxploitation" or "Soul Cinema" motion pictures, especially those featuring Pam Grier. The name itself clearly is based on Foxy Brown (Since she's played by Pam Grier) and Cleopatra Jones (played by Tamara Dobson). Other elements of her character are taken from Grier's characters in the films Coffy and Friday Foster. Teresa Graves's performance in the short-lived crime drama Get Christie Love! might also be an inspiration, but all of the vixens in the "soul cinema" genre might be considered formulaic.

A few other 1960's films that seem to have been source material for the satirical blend of the characters:

  • Dr. No (1962, Dr. No's HQ/Dr. Evil's HQ)
  • You Only Live Twice (1967, the Blofeld/Dr. Evil appearance.)
  • Casino Royale (1967, many elements, itself a spoof of the Bond films.)
  • Blow-Up (1966, the virile fashion photographer.)
  • Our Man Flint and In Like Flint (1966 and 1967, many elements. Austin, in 'The Spy Who Shagged Me,' says the latter title is his favorite movie.)
  • The Ipcress File (1965, Harry Palmer's glasses.)
  • Alfie (1966, mentioned and parodied throughout all three movies)
  • The Island of Dr. Moreau (Dr. Evil plays a duet of "What If God Was One of Us" on a large piano with MiniMe on a smaller keyboard in The Spy Who Shagged Me, a parody of a similar scene in the aforementioned film.

[edit] Trivia

  • The Austin Powers Theme (Soul Bossa Nova) by Quincy Jones and produced by DJ Green Lantern was sampled in Ludacris's 2004 single, #1 Spot on his album The Red Light District. The song was featured in the 1964 movie, The Pawnbroker and also formed the basis for the hit 1991 rap song "My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style" by the Dream Warriors. Also, it was used as the theme to a 1970s Canadian television game show called Definition; Myers is known for inserting references to his native Canada into his films, and the use of the "Definition" theme is considered one of these references (the Dream Warriors recording also makes this connection).
  • Austin's full name is Sir Austin Danger Powers: he is not just speaking metaphorically when he says, "Danger is my middle name, baby!"
  • Throughout the trilogy, Austin's pad changes repeatedly. Also, when he returns to it by travelling back in time, there is always a party in progress despite his absence.
  • In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted the Austin Powers movies (collectively) the 12th greatest comedy film of all time.
  • There has been some criticism for the excessive amount of product placement in the film. For example, the film depicts an exterior pad with the name Virgin Atlantic emblazoned on it.
  • Some of the incidental music played in the background of the series is strikingly similar to the incidental music for the Gerry Anderson UFO (TV series) which is based upon the theme song of that TV series.
  • The "I shall call him... Mini-Me!" line was spoofed in Mew Mew Power, in the episode "The Mew Kid in Town", when Zoey receives the R2000 she says, "I shall call him... Mini-Mew!"
  • People dressed as Celebi and Charmander from Pokémon fled from the car that crashed into the building in Austin Powers in Goldmember. Two more Pokémon, Meowth and Pikachu, can be seen in a deleted scene. The commentary for the scene explains that on a trip to Toyko the film-makers claimed that anime characters walked down the streets on a regular basis.
  • Goldmember was also the name of a credit card introduced by American Express shortly before the film's announcement.
  • Austin's Jet attracted some amusement, as Austin was supposed to have been frozen in 1967 - and presumably already owned the jet - whereas the Boeing 747 did not enter service until 1970.
  • From 2002 to 2006, there was an AIM bot of the same name to promote Goldmember. From 2006 onward, he displays this message if you try to talk to him:

" Cheers! I've been decommissioned. Why don't you say 'ello to my friend SmarterChild! Grrrr baby!

  • Rob Lowe's uncanny impersonation of Robert Wagner as the young Number 2 is partly accounted for by the fact that Lowe lived near Wagner as a child. He practiced his impersonation from an early age while playing around Wagner's pool

[edit] Catchphrases

  • "Oh, behave!"
  • "Yeah Baby! Yeah!"
  • "Groovy, baby!"
  • "Shagadelic!"
  • "Shall we shag now or shall we shag later?"
  • "Do I make you horny, do I?" (randy in the edited version)
  • "Smashing!"
  • "Hey baby, what's your sign?"
  • "Honestly, it's not mine!"
  • "This sort of thing ain't my bag, baby!"
  • "Crikey! I've lost my mojo!"
  • "Hop on the good foot and do the bad thing"
  • "I'm spent"
  • "Wait a tick..."
  • "Cor Blimey"
  • Dr Evil: "Welcome to My Underground Lair!"
  • Fat Bastard: "GET IN MA BELLY!"
  • "Personally, before I'm on the job i like to give my undercarriage a bit of a how's-your-father."

[edit] Video games

  • Austin Powers: Oh, Behave! (Game Boy Color)
  • Austin Powers: Welcome to My Underground Lair! (Game Boy Color)
  • Austin Powers in Operation Trivia (PC and Macintosh)
  • Austin Powers Pinball (PlayStation)

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
The Austin Powers movies
International Man of Mystery | The Spy Who Shagged Me | Goldmember
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