Austin Powers: How to be an International Man of Mystery

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Intimate Artistry: Austin was flirting with Vanessa from the very instant that he awoke from his cryogenic freezing, but he only seemed to progress from purely-physical attraction to an emotional connection when she briefly posed for photographs for him when they were on a surveillance mission. After saying how beautiful she was he took her out for a night on the town, where she first began to return his affections. Rule of Three: Spoofed, where Mustafa, one of Dr. Evil's assassins, always answers a question truthfully the third time it's asked , because he can't stand being asked the same question three times. However, Mustafa will only answer if the same question is asked three consecutive times. Low-Speed Chase: Austin and Vanessa try to escape pursuing guards in a steamroller that moves so slowly that the guards should be able to easily catch up to them. Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Scott asks this almost verbatim: "why don't you just kill him?", in a scene parodying this kind of thing. (Dr.Evil instead lowers Austin and Vanessa into a pool of mutated sea bass.)

In the first film, Austin claims to hate Carnies (or "circus folk") because they "smell like cabbage". Two films later, his father is ambushed by Mini-Me. His response? "I thought I smelled cabbage." Two plots Dr. Evil cooked up in the 60's have already happened in the 90's. He's too late to the punch to damage the ozone layer and his Royal Family sex scandal plot won't work because there already was a Royal Family sex scandal. The name’s Bond. Bondathon. With twenty-four official James Bond films to conquer before No Time To Die hits theaters, Bond fan Anna Swanson and Bond newbie Meg Shields are diving deep on 007. Martinis shaken and beluga caviar in hand, the Double Take duo are making their way through the Bond corpus. In this entry, they’re on a quest to identify every single James Bond reference in the Austin Powers trilogy. Aside from everything Nigel says about Mini-Me's endowments, there's the fact that when Mini-Me lowers his pants, there is an audible thump. Terminator Twosome: Inverted, as Austin and Dr. Evil both travel to the future in the first movie, and played straight, as they travel to the past in the second.Perspective Reversal: In the first film, Austin upsets Vanessa by sleeping with Alotta as part of the job; in this movie, Felicity upsets Austin by sleeping with Fat Bastard as part of the job. Dr. Evil’s voyage to space is a reference to the lunar exploits of Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale), the central villain of Moonraker.

Austin makes many puns at the expense of his murder victims. All the Bonds have a penchant for puns, but Pierce Brosnan is especially guilty of dad jokes. In the second film, Austin mourns over Vanessa being a Fembot... until he realizes this means he's single again. OH BEHAVE! [cue Soul Boss Nova again!] Euphemistic Names: Being an Affectionate Parody of the James Bond films, the Austin Powers films have at least one example of this in each film and it's Played for Laughs. Such examples include Number Two's companion Alotta Fagina, Austin's Love Interest in the second film Felicity Shagwell ("Shagwell by name, Shag very well by reputation"), Dr. Evil's spies Ivana Humpalot and Robin Swallows and an In-Universe film character named Dixie Normous. Bait-and-Switch: While in his pad at 1969, Austin stands beside a woman, and suddenly says "Get your hands off my Heinie, baby!" The womand moves her hand into shot, revealing that she's holding a Heineken beer.Big "NO!": When Dr. Evil hits the self-destruct button, then throws the bottle containing Austin's "mojo" into the air, both Austins do this while they try to catch the jar. a b Cherie D. Abbey; Omnigraphics; Kevin Hillstrom (2004). Biography Today Performing Artists. Omnigraphics. p.101. ISBN 078080709X. In the second and third films, Fat Bastard gives a heartfelt speech about his weight... then farts.

As an academically proven phenomenon, mass cultural nostalgia tends to heighten and reach critical mass for an “era” about 30 years after the fact. Presumably this ties into generational turnover, with adults becoming new parents and being eager to introduce their children to the things they loved growing up. The civility between Basil and Russian agents recalls the working relationship that Bond and M have with their counterpart on the other side of the iron curtain, General Gogol (Walter Gotell). Like Bond villains before him (e.g. Largo, Dr. Kananga, Stromberg, and Sanchez) Dr. Evil loves sharks. Twenty years later, it’s hard to imagine that we’ll ever see a comedy like this tap into the pop culture zeitgeist again. And there are several major reasons for that… 1960s Nostalgia Is On the DeclineSpiritual Successor: The films follow in the footsteps of the James Bond spoofs of the 1960s, particularly Our Man Flint and Casino Royale (1967). The films combine Mike Myers' love of classic spy movies, particularly those featuring James Bond and Matt Helm, with a dash of classic Doctor Who (Austin's velvet suits were inspired by Jon Pertwee's outfits). Austin's swinging lifestyle and velvet suits are no longer in fashion in the 90's and he now comes off as weird instead of hip.

The video games he appears in are Austin Powers Pinball, Austin Powers: Welcome to My Underground Lair!, Austin Powers: Oh, Behave!, and Austin Powers Operation: Trivia.Spies Are Lecherous: Austin is an extremely promiscuous super-spy who is in his prime during the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and really lives by it. Despite being a homely man with Nerd Glasses and British Teeth, he's extremely popular with the ladies. In his second movie, his "mojo" gets stolen, making him temporarily lose his sexual prowess. Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Tom Cruise uses his British accent while playing Austin in the In-Universe movie based on Austin's adventures.