Austin Powers (character)

This article is about the film character called Austin Powers. For the movie series, see Austin Powers series.

Sir Austin Danger Powers, KBE, is a fictional character portrayed by Mike Myers in a series of 1960s spy films parodies, known as the Austin Powers series.

Character Biography

The character known as Austin Powers was presumably born in 1939 or early 1940: in a 1958 flashback in Goldmember he is clearly in his late teens. His parents' holiday in Belgium during his infancy would have predated the German invasion on May 10, 1940. He is the son of Nigel Powers (played by Michael Caine), a respected Ministry of Defence agent, and the twin brother of Dougie Powers, otherwise known as Doctor Evil. While attending boarding school, he was awarded the title of "International Man of Mystery" - much to the dismay of his brother, who believed himself to be more deserving. This would play a prominent role in their future relationship, having turned Dr. Evil against Austin.

File:Austins jet.jpg

Austin's anachronistic personal jet

Following his schooling, Powers joined the Ministry of Defence and, partnered with Mrs. Kensington, faithfully protected Queen and country from Dr. Evil and his diabolical schemes while working under the cover of a fashion photographer. To avoid capture, Dr. Evil had himself cryopreserved in 1967; Powers had himself frozen in turn, to be brought back should the world ever require protection from Dr. Evil again. They were subsequently unfrozen in 1997, and continued their adversarial relationship while attempting to acclimate to the culture shock of losing 30 years' worth of time.

Powers has been married once, to Vanessa Kensington (daughter of Mrs. Kensington). The marriage ended in Vanessa's self-destruction, when she was revealed to be a kamikaze Fembot sent by Dr. Evil to assassinate Austin.

Personal characteristics

Apart from being a satire of James Bond, Austin Powers also represents the archetypal 1960s mod, with his constant advocacy for free love, his use of obscure expressions and his outrageously out-of-date clothes, though the womanizing side of him could be said to neatly combine his 1960s side with his James Bond template in itself. With his flamboyant ways and never-changing dress-sense, he is deliberately made to stick out from his surroundings (though invariably escaping detection when disguised)- particularly when he talks about things that would have had no place in the 1990s, or when he tries to play a CD on a record player.

Apart from his large, discolored teeth (reflecting stereotypic English dental hygiene), unkempt hair and glasses, when he takes off his clothes he is revealed to have a very hairy body (perhaps an exaggerated version of Sean Connery's as seen in his shirtless scenes) and—although we never see it—it is implied that he has a small penis. This in turn could be interpreted as exaggerating what many see as the stupidity of the James Bond girls' being in many cases besotted with a secret agent even though he will invariably vanish after the ceremonious "warming up of bodies" that is detected when most of the Bond-films come to an end. Austin similarly reflected Bond's lack of reflection with regard to the loss of a girl when Vanessa exploded; once again, exaggerated to the point that Austin, after mourning for only a brief moment, joyously exclaims "Hold on a tic. That means I'm single again!" and proceeds to run around the hotel naked.

Fears

As heard in "Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery", he is only afraid of two things, nuclear war and carnies.(because to him they smell like cabbage=])