Austin Powers

Sir Austin Danger Powers, played by Mike Myers, is the title character of a series of parodies of 1960s spy films, primarily James Bond, Derek Flint, Harry Palmer, and Matt Helm, and an increasingly broad range of other elements of popular culture.

Original sources

Power's flamboyant appearance and overt flirtation is probably based on the early 1970s TV character Jason King, who originally appeared in the ITC Entertainment programme Department S and, later, in his own spin-off show. 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?.

Related Topics:
Jason King - ITC Entertainment - Department S - Spin-off - Austin-Healey - What's Up, Doc?

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Powers' "cover persona" is 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 (and perhaps also Peter Sellers in Casino Royale). In a rather unusual twist of fate, Caine played Austin's father, Nigel Powers, in Goldmember.

Related Topics:
Michelangelo Antonioni - Blow-Up - Dean Martin - Harry Palmer - Peter Sellers - Casino Royale

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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 of the social changes that have occurred in the intervening years.

Related Topics:
Cryogenically - 1990s - Adam Adamant Lives! - Edwardian

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:"...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!"

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Powers' nemesis is Dr. Evil, a character based on Blofeld of the Bond films, and Saturday Night Live's creator Lorne Michaels. Other Bond inspired villains include Frau Farbissina, based on From Russia With Love's Rosa Klebb; Dr. Evil's number-two man, Number 2, inspired by Thunderball's Emilio Largo and referring also to Number 2 in The Prisoner; Alotta Fagina, a pun on Goldfinger's Pussy Galore; and Random Task, again a pun, this time on Goldfinger's Oddjob.

Related Topics:
Dr. Evil - Blofeld - Lorne Michaels - Frau Farbissina - From Russia With Love's - Thunderball's - Emilio Largo - The Prisoner - Goldfinger's - Oddjob

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Michael York's character Basil Exposition is named such because Basil literally provides the audience with the exposition of the plot. The name is a parody of the scenes in the Bond movies where M- or some other high ranking official- made use of highly sophisticated audio visual devices and explained the "plot" and "characters" to Bond. These scenes were written to make sure the audience "got" the story (hence Myers' parody.) The Bond screenwriters were often aware how clunky these expositionary scenes could be. They made them more entertaining by having Bond briefed in exotic locations (such as a hidden cave in the Egyptian desert in The Spy Who Loved Me) or by having having Bond show that he knew more than M about the subject at hand .

Related Topics:
Michael York - Basil Exposition - Exposition - Bond - M - Myers' - The Spy Who Loved Me - M

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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 from The Avengers (especially Diana Rigg's "Emma Peel" character).

Related Topics:
Catsuit - The Avengers - Diana Rigg

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Felicity Shagwell in "The Spy Who Shagged Me" is based on three characters: the 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". She could also be an American version of "Modesty Blaise".

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Foxxy Cleopatra in "Goldmember" is clearly based on female characters from 1970s "Blaxploitation" or "Soul Cinema" motion pictures, especially those featuring Pam Grier. The name itself is based on "Foxy Brown" (played by Pam Grier) and "Cleopatra Jones" (played by Tamara Dobson).

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

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• 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)