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Austin Powers, played by Mike Myers, is the title character of a series of films. The films are a parody of many spy films of the 1960s, primarily the James Bond film franchise, and an increasingly broad range of other elements of popular culture. With the added features of bodily functions and toilet humour, the films reflect a bawdy sense of humour.
The films parody the cliché of a male super-spy who is irresistibly attractive to women, and makes no attempt to resist them. The satiric elements of this cliché come from Powers' lack of physical beauty – his bad teeth, for example, are made fun of in several scenes (this is also a reflection of an American stereotype of British people, who are said to have poor dental hygiene). Powers' "cover persona" is a fashion photographer, providing an opportunity (in the first two films) to satirize Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up as well as Dean Martin's Matt Helm character.
Another major source of humour, especially in the first film, comes from Powers' having been cryogenically frozen in the 1960s and then revived in the late 1990s without having any sense of the social change that has occurred in the intervening 30 years.
- "As long as people are still taking mind-altering drugs and having sex with many partners in a consequence free environment, then I'm sound as a pound, baby!"
Powers' nemesis is Dr. Evil, based on the Blofeld character from the Bond films. 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; Alotta Fagina, a pun on Goldfinger's Pussy Galore; and Random Task, again a pun, this time on Goldfinger's Oddjob.
The first film, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, took about US$68 million in box office sales. Its sequel Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me grossed about US$310 million worldwide. A third, Austin Powers in Goldmember, was released in 2002 and grossed about $288 million worldwide.
The name Austin Powers may be inspired by the British Austin-Healey sports cars which were popular in the 1960s.
He is also known for his gleeful sexual exclamations, "Yeah, baby! Yeah!" and "Oh, behave!"
Powers' full name is Austin Danger Powers: "Danger is my middle name."
A few 1960's films which seem to have been source material for the satirical blend of the character:
- You Only Live Twice (1967, the Blofeld appearance)
- Casino Royale (1967, many elements, itself a spoof of the Bond films)
- Blow Up (1966, the virile fashion photographer element)
- In Like Flint (1967, many elements)
- The Ipcress File (1965, Harry Palmer's horn rimmed glasses)
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