Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jay Roach
Produced by	Jan Blenkin John S. Lyons Eric McLeod Demi Moore Mike Myers
Screenplay by	Michael McCullers Mike Myers
Based on	Characters by Mike Myers
Starring	Mike Myers Heather Graham Michael York Robert Wagner Seth Green Elizabeth Hurley
Music by	George S. Clinton
Cinematography	Ueli Steiger
Edited by	Debra Neil-Fisher Jon Poll
Production companies	Eric's Boy Moving Pictures Team Todd
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date	June 11, 1999 (1999-06-11) (United States)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English German
Budget	$33 million[1]
Box office	$312 million

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is a 1999 American spy action comedy film and the second installment in the Austin Powers series. It is preceded by the original film, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and followed by Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). The film was directed by Jay Roach, co-written by Mike Myers and screenwriter Michael McCullers,^[2] and once again stars Myers as the title character. Myers also plays Dr. Evil and Fat Bastard.

The film's title is a play on the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me and contains plot elements from The Pink Panther Strikes Again and the other James Bond films, Diamonds Are Forever (laser gun plot), You Only Live Twice (secret volcano base), Moonraker (outer space), The Man with the Golden Gun (Mini-Me based on character Nick Nack) and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (opening sequence in which it turns out that Vanessa Kensington was a fembot).

The film grossed around $312 million in worldwide ticket sales, taking more money during its opening weekend than the entire box office proceeds of its predecessor. It was nominated at the 72nd Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Makeup (Michèle Burke and Mike Smithson).^[3]

Plot

Austin Powers is enjoying his honeymoon with his wife, the former Vanessa Kensington. She turns out to be one of Dr. Evil's fembots, who attempts to kill Austin, then self-destructs. Austin grieves briefly, then suddenly realizes that he is single again, which he celebrates by streaking through the hotel.

A NATO monitoring facility observes the return of Dr. Evil, confronting his son Scott, and then starting a riot, on The Jerry Springer Show, and informs British intelligence. At Dr. Evil's Seattle headquarters, Dr. Evil is presented with a one-eighth-size clone of himself whom he calls Mini-Me.

Dr. Evil unveils his latest evil plan: he has developed a time machine to go back to the 1960s and steal Austin's mojo, the source of Austin's sexual appeal. Dr. Evil and Mini-Me go back to 1969 and meet a younger Number Two and Frau Farbissina. An obese "Scottish Guard" called Fat Bastard extracts Austin's mojo from his frozen body at the Ministry of Defence Cryo Chamber. British intelligence warns Austin that one of Dr. Evil's agents is after him, and during a photo shoot the wanton Ivana Humpalot seduces him, but at the last moment she claims he is too sexy for her to kill him. They have sex in his bed, but do not get far before he discovers that he has lost his mojo and is impotent.

The MOD sends Austin back to 1969 with its own time travel device, a convertible Volkswagen New Beetle. Austin arrives at a party in his London pad and with the assistance of a CIA agent, Felicity Shagwell, escapes an assassination attempt by two of Dr. Evil's operatives. Austin and Felicity are pursued by Mustafa, another of Dr. Evil's henchmen; when caught he reveals the existence of Dr. Evil's secret volcano lair. Before he can divulge its location, Mini-Me shoots him in the neck with a dart, causing him to fall off a cliff.

After examining photographs from the crime scene at MOD headquarters, Austin identifies Fat Bastard as the perpetrator of the theft of his mojo. At Dr. Evil's lair, Fat Bastard arrives with Austin's mojo. Dr. Evil drinks some of it and has sex with Frau Farbissina. This results in an awkward situation when Frau reveals that she is pregnant. At the same moment Scott, Dr. Evil's son, arrives through the time portal. Dr. Evil announces his latest plan — to hold the world ransom by threatening to destroy major cities each hour, using a giant laser on the Moon. In London, Austin and Felicity get to know each other, but when Felicity tries to have sex with Austin, he turns her down because of his lost mojo.

Under MOD instructions to implant a homing device into Fat Bastard, Felicity seduces him, allowing her to plant it in his anus. Fat Bastard forces it out of his bowels into a Paddington Station toilet, but a stool sample from the scene is analyzed to reveal traces of a vegetable that only grows on one Caribbean island. Austin and Felicity arrive on the island, but are apprehended. They are put in a cell with a guard who is overcome when Felicity exposes her breasts. Dr. Evil and Mini-Me leave for the Moon to install the giant laser and are followed by Austin and Felicity, who hitch a ride on Apollo 11. In Dr. Evil's moon base, Austin battles with Mini-Me, eventually flushing him into space. As Austin confronts Dr. Evil, Dr. Evil gives him a choice: Save the world or Felicity, who is locked in a chamber with poison gas.

Felicity tells Austin to save the world and he succeeds in doing so by kicking Frau, diverting the laser and saving Washington D.C. Felicity is killed by the poison gas. Austin chases Dr. Evil and shoots him in the leg. Before Austin can kill him, Dr. Evil tells him he could use the time machine to save Felicity and the world. Austin travels ten minutes into the past, meeting up with himself and saving both the world and Felicity. Dr. Evil initiates the self-destruct mechanism of the moon base and escapes in his rocket after throwing Austin's mojo into the air. Both Austins fail to catch it and it crashes on the floor and is destroyed. Felicity points out that all the things Austin has done show that he never lost his mojo. They escape through the time portal to 1999.

At Austin's Pad, Fat Bastard makes another attempt to assassinate Austin, but Felicity disarms him. Felicity and Austin then throw a party. Dr. Evil recovers Mini-Me from space and vows to "get" Austin. On Jerry Springer, Scott learns he was not created in a test tube, but is the love child of Dr. Evil and Frau Farbissina. Austin returns to his pad, only to discover Felicity with the past Austin, who claims that since he and Austin are the same person, it is not cheating. Austin forgives Felicity.

Cast

Production

Title censorship

When the film was released, the title proved controversial in the United Kingdom, where the word shag is used to refer coarsely to sexual intercourse. Two sets of British TV adverts for the film existed, for showing before and after the watershed. The former was designed to air during daytime hours and only gave part of the title, (Austin Powers: The Spy Who—), before cutting off with one of a range of slightly suggestive scenes from the film, such as Austin squeezing out the contents of a massage oil bottle. The post watershed adverts, aired later in the evening, gave the full title. There were also two variations of the posters; one of them asterisked out the middle of the offending word. Other posters had named the film as Austin Powers 2.^[5] According to the Collins English Dictionary the use of the word shag in the film's title helped to increase the word's acceptability, reducing its shock value and giving it a more jocular, relaxed connotation.^[6]

Singapore considered a title change to The Spy Who Shioked Me (shiok means “to feel good”).^[5]

Soundtrack

The movie's soundtrack contains the 1999 smash hit "Beautiful Stranger" by Madonna. The song won a Grammy in 2000. Mike Myers appears as Austin Powers in the video, directed by Brett Ratner.

Dr. Evil also sings a parody of Will Smith's popular 1997 cover of the Grover Washington, Jr. classic "Just the Two of Us", referring in this case to his clone Mini-Me. The film’s soundtrack had a rating of three stars at AllMusic.^[7]

Track listing

1. "Beautiful Stranger" - Madonna
2. "My Generation" - The Who (live at BBC)
3. "Draggin' the Line" - R.E.M.
4. "American Woman" - Lenny Kravitz
5. "Word Up!" - Melanie B (credited as Melanie G)
6. "Just The Two Of Us (Dr. Evil Mix)" - Dr. Evil (Mike Myers)
7. "Espionage" - Green Day
8. "Time of the Season" - Big Blue Missile/Scott Weiland
9. "Buggin'" - The Flaming Lips
10. "Alright" - The Lucy Nation
11. "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" - Burt Bacharach/Elvis Costello
12. "Soul Bossa Nova (Dim's Space-A-Nova)" - Quincy Jones & His Orchestra

The soundtrack sold over 1 million copies in the USA and was certified Platinum. A second soundtrack was also released, entitled More Music From the Motion Picture.

More Music track listing "Dialogue"

1. "Austin Meets Felicity" - Film Dialogue
2. Mustafa's Three Question Rule - Film Dialogue

"More Music" track listing

1. "Am I Sexy?" - Lords of Acid
2. "I'm a Believer" - The Monkees
3. "Magic Carpet Ride" - Steppenwolf
4. "American Woman" - The Guess Who
5. "Get The Girl" - The Bangles
6. "Bachelord Pad" (FPM Edit) - Fantastic Plastic Machine
7. "Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye
8. "Crash!" - Propellerheads
9. "Time of the Season" - The Zombies
10. "Dr. Evil" - They Might Be Giants
11. "The Austin Powers Shagaphonic Medley" - George S. Clinton
12. "Beautiful Stranger" (Calderone Radio Mix) - Madonna

In addition, a score album featuring cues from both George S. Clinton scores (tracks 1-7 from the first film, track 8 an arrangement of Quincy Jones's "Soul Bossa Nova," and tracks 9-16 from the second) was released.

Chart positions

Weekly

Year-end

Reception

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 51%, based on 114 reviews, with the site's critical consensus reading, "Provides lots of laughs with Myers at the healm; as funny or funnier than the original."^[16] On Metacritic the film has a score of 59 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[17]

Box office

The Spy who Shagged Me had a strong box opening at No.1^[1][18]

See also

• Outline of James Bond

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me on IMDb
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me at AllMovie
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me at Box Office Mojo
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me at Rotten Tomatoes

Austin Powers
Films	International Man of Mystery (1997) The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) Goldmember (2002)
Characters	Agents Austin Powers Vanessa Kensington Nigel Powers Mrs. Kensington Villains Dr. Evil Scott Evil Mini-Me Frau Farbissina Fat Bastard Number 2 Goldmember
Other	Ming Tea (musical group) Oh, Behave! (game) Welcome to My Underground Lair! (game) Pinball (game) Collectible Card Game Accolades for the film series
Category