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Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, released in 1997, is the first film of the Austin Powers series. It was directed by Jay Roach and written by Mike Myers who also stars in the title role. Myers also plays Dr. Evil, Austin Powers' arch-enemy. The movie co-stars Elizabeth Hurley as Vanessa Kensington, Robert Wagner as Number Two, Seth Green as Scott Evil, and Michael York as Basil Exposition. There are cameos by Will Ferrell, Carrie Fisher, Tom Arnold, Rob Lowe, Christian Slater, Neil Mullarkey, and Burt Bacharach, and an uncredited cameo by MADtv star Michael McDonald, among many others.
The film is a parody of the early James Bond films (particularly those starring Sean Connery) as well as other 1960s spy films.
The film, which cost $16.5 million, opened on May 2, 1997, to positive critical reviews.
Discussion
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Quotations
Allow myself to introduce... myself. My name is Richie Cunningham and this is my wife, Oprah.
I liquidated the group, you little shit. They were insolent.
If he were any cooler, he'd still be frozen, baby!
It's frickin freezing in here, Mr. Bigglesworth!
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my underground lair. I have gathered here before me the world's deadliest assassins.
One more peep out of you and you're grounded Mister and I am not joking. Let's begin
Encyclopedia
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, released in 1997, is the first film of the Austin Powers series. It was directed by Jay Roach and written by Mike Myers who also stars in the title role. Myers also plays Dr. Evil, Austin Powers' arch-enemy. The movie co-stars Elizabeth Hurley as Vanessa Kensington, Robert Wagner as Number Two, Seth Green as Scott Evil, and Michael York as Basil Exposition. There are cameos by Will Ferrell, Carrie Fisher, Tom Arnold, Rob Lowe, Christian Slater, Neil Mullarkey, and Burt Bacharach, and an uncredited cameo by MADtv star Michael McDonald, among many others.
The film is a parody of the early James Bond films (particularly those starring Sean Connery) as well as other 1960s spy films.
The film, which cost $16.5 million, opened on May 2, 1997, to positive critical reviews. It made a modest impact at the box office, grossing US$53 million in its North American release and about US$68 million worldwide. The film later became a hit and cult classic on the home video market and cable television, spawning two more commercially successful sequels.
Plot
The year is 1967. Dentally challenged British gentleman spy Austin Powers and his nemesis Dr. Evil have faced each other many times during the decade. As Dr. Evil's henchmen have failed to dispose of Powers, he makes his own assassination attempt at a nightclub in London, England. Powers foils the attempt and Dr. Evil escapes in a space rocket disguised as a Bob's Big Boy statue, where he places himself in a cryogenic freezing chamber to return sometime in the future. In return, Powers volunteers to have himself placed in cryostasis in case his services are needed in the future.
Dr. Evil returns thirty years later in 1997 with new evil plans for world domination and reunites with his associates, Frau Farbissina, Mustafa (whom he soon enough kills off after "problems arose in the un freezing process", causing Mr Bigglesworth to lose all his fur) and Number Two. During Dr. Evil’s absence, Number Two has developed "Virtucon", the legitimate face of Dr. Evil's empire, into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, but Dr. Evil prefers to either (a) blackmail the British Royal Family, the wealthiest landowners in the world, by fabricating an extramarital affair involving Prince Charles which would lead to divorce or (b) use several industrial lasers to punch holes in the ozone layer and cause an increase in risks of skin cancer. Yet they are both rejected by Number Two as already having occurred. Frustrated, he decides to "do what [they] always do: hijack some nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage." It is only after Dr. Evil suggests a ransom of $1 million that he learns of Virtucon's revenues, and raises the demand to $100 billion.
Having learned of the return of Dr. Evil, the British Ministry of Defence unfreezes Powers. To help him adjust to the 1990s, he is teamed with Vanessa Kensington, the daughter of his 1960s sidekick Mrs. Kensington. After being reunited with his previous belongings, which include a "Swedish-made penis-enlarger pump", a receipt for a "Swedish-made penis-enlarger pump" and a book written by Powers titled "Swedish-Made Penis Enlarger Pumps and Me (This Sort of Thing Is My Bag, Baby)", Powers and Kensington jet to Las Vegas in search of Dr. Evil. However, Powers' free love credo from the 1960s does not go down well with Kensington, who continues to resist his advances.
Meanwhile, Dr. Evil learns that during his absence his associates have artificially created his son, Scott, using his frozen semen. Now a Generation X teenager, Scott resents his father's absence, and they attend a "fathers and sons" group therapy session (Hosted in cameo by Carrie Fisher).
Posing as a married couple, Powers and Kensington check into a hotel and are put on the trail of Number Two, using the alias' of Richie and Oprah Cunningham. During their time in Las Vegas, Kensington gradually warms to Powers' charms, but he refuses to take advantage of her while she is intoxicated. Over a game of blackjack, Powers meets Number Two's buxom "Italian confidential private secretary," Alotta Fagina. Under instructions from the British Secret Service, Powers breaks into Fagina's penthouse apartment in search of plans for Dr. Evil's "Project Vulcan". After learning that Project Vulcan involves driving a nuclear warhead into the Earth’s molten core to trigger massive volcanic eruptions, Powers is discovered by Fagina and he watches her strip naked through the door to her bedroom. She walks out wearing nothing but a very small bathrobe, which she takes off and walks into a hot tub. Powers follows her in there, where she learns his true identity and seduces him into having sex with her. Meanwhile, Dr. Evil learns that Powers is after him, but his entourage have identified Powers' libido as his weakness and created a group of fembots; beautiful, blonde female androids equipped with automatic guns concealed in their breasts. Frau tests their new weapon on their own guards and they perform flawlessly, getting the guards to lower their guns with their physical attraction, and then killing them with their breast guns.
The British Secret Service discover that Virtucon conducts tourist tours of its headquarters, and this is considered an ideal opportunity for Powers and Kensington to infiltrate. After bamboozling a security guard to gain entrance to the restricted area, Powers and Kensington are apprehended by Dr. Evil's henchman, Random Task.
Dr. Evil presents his ultimatum to the United Nations (here represented by diplomats seated around a table with stereotypical international figures such as matadors and sumo wrestlers surrounding them) and they concede to his demands. However, he is so evil that he decides to keep the ransom but still destroy the world. Powers and Kensington are then placed in "an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death" from which they escape, and Kensington is sent for help.
While Project Vulcan is put into operation, Powers tries to find Dr. Evil but stumbles upon the fembots, which are in fuzzy, see-through nightgowns. They enter performing cartwheels, then jump on his shoulders, which allow them to cover him with a pink gas that "came out of their jubblies" as Powers later explained. Powers lies in bed with the fembots, as they rub their hands on him he tries to snap out of it by thinking of non-sexual things. He then snaps out of it and eventually overcomes them with the use of his "mojo" in a sex-charged striptease.
Led by Kensington, British forces raid the underground lair, and at the last moment Powers stops the doomsday device. Powers confronts Dr. Evil and is joined by Kensington, who is being held hostage by Alotta Fagina. They are interrupted by Number Two, who resents Dr. Evil's illegitimate plans after he has been so successful in the conventional business world and wishes to make a deal with Powers. Before he can, Dr. Evil (apparently) kills Number Two and seizes his opportunity to initiate the self-destruct mechanism and, once again, escapes in his cryogenic freezing chamber inside the "Big Boy" spaceship. Powers and Kensington escape in Powers' conveniently parked shaguar while the underground lair is destroyed in a nuclear explosion.
Powers and Kensington are later married, but during their honeymoon Powers is attacked by Dr. Evil's henchman, Random Task. Defeated in conventional combat, Powers subdues the assassin through the use of his "Swedish-made penis pump", allowing Kensington to knock him out with a glass bottle to the head. In a romantic moment, the couple adjourn to their balcony to observe the stars. Noticing a rather bright star, Powers pulls out a telescope to discover that it is in fact Dr. Evil's cryogenic chamber in which Dr. Evil vows to "get" Austin Powers.
Cast
Characters
- Austin Powers’ flamboyant fashion sense shows strong similarities to the TV character Jason King, while his copious chest hair is a homage to the Sean Connery-acted version of James Bond and his glasses are owed mainly to Harry Palmer and partly to Peter Sellers' 'Evelyn Bond 'character in the 1967 Bond spoof Casino Royale. His main outfit also resembles one worn by George Lazenby in the 1969 James Bond Film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The fact that he is woken up after years of being frozen to fight his enemy again is a parody of the premise of Adam Adamant Lives!.
- Dr. Evil is a spoof of James Bond's nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and his voice is based on Saturday Night Live creator/EP Lorne Michaels (Mike Myers' former boss on SNL).
- Number Two is a spoof of the James Bond villain Emilio Largo who is number two in Blofeld's criminal organization SPECTRE.
- Random Task is a spoof of Oddjob from Goldfinger.
- Alotta Fagina is a spoof of Pussy Galore from Goldfinger (in some versions broadcast on American commercial television, the name Alotta Fagina is changed to Alotta Cleavaga).
- Frau Farbissina is a spoof of Rosa Klebb, the villain from From Russia with Love, and Frau Blücher from Young Frankenstein.
- Mr. Bigglesworth (Dr. Evil's cat) is a parody of Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld's white Persian, although it becomes hairless due to the cryostasis.
- The red headed Paddy O'Brien is a spoof on Red Grant of From Russia With Love; Grant's Irishness was toned down from Fleming's book to the Terence Young film. Like the Grant of the film, Paddy strangles people with a charm bracelet instead of a wristwatch and invites laughter when repeating the "Always after me Lucky Charms" breakfast cereal catchphrase.
- Mrs. Kensington and her daughter Vanessa Kensington are both spoofs of Emma Peel from the 1960s television series The Avengers.
- The characters of Commander Gilmour and General Borchevsky were named after Doug Gilmour and Nicolai Borchevsky, two former players from Myers’ favorite National Hockey League team, his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs.
Production
Inspiration
Mike Myers has stated that he was inspired to create the character after hearing the song “The Look of Love” on the radio, which was the theme song of Ursula Andress’s character Vesper Lynd in the 1967 version of Casino Royale, and thus the film has many of the late 60s psychedelic pop culture stylings of that earlier film. Other inspirations for the character and the film include Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, the BBC series Adam Adamant Lives!, in which an Edwardian hero is frozen by his arch-enemy The Face and is revived in 1960s London, Michael Caine’s Harry Palmer character from The Ipcress File, and Peter Wyngarde’s “Jason King” character from Department S and Jason King.
Filming locations
The following is a list of known locations during the filming of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.
Soundtrack
Track listing
- “The Magic Piper (Of Love)” - Edwyn Collins
- “BBC” - Ming Tea
- “Incense and Peppermints” - Strawberry Alarm Clock
- “Carnival” - The Cardigans
- “Mas Que Nada” - Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66
- “Female of the Species (Fembot Mix)" - Space
- “You Showed Me” - The Lightning Seeds
- “Soul Bossa Nova” - Quincy Jones and His Orchestra
- “These Days” - Luxury
- “Austin's Theme” - The James Taylor Quartet
- “I Touch Myself” - The Divinyls
- “Call Me” - The Mike Flowers Pops
- “The Look of Love” - Susanna Hoffs
- “What the World Needs Now Is Love” - Burt Bacharach and The Posies
- “The Book Lovers” - Broadcast
- “Austin Powers” - Wondermints
- “The ‘Shag-adelic’ Austin Powers Score Medley” - George S. Clinton
DVD Release Aspect Ratio
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was released to region 1 single disc "flipper disc" DVD with widescreen and full screen versions on opposing sides of the disc. The widescreen transfer is unusual in that it is a modified version of the theatrical ratio: Despite being filmed in 2.35:1 aspect ratio, on DVD it is presented as 2:1 ratio, "as specified by the director" according to the disc packaging.
External links
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