It is kind of wild to look back at 1997. We had the Titanic iceberg loom, the Spice Girls everywhere, and then, this weird, neon-colored British guy with terrible teeth and a velvet suit basically crashed into American theaters. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was not supposed to be a massive, world-altering franchise. Honestly, it barely made a dent at the box office when it first landed.
But then something weird happened. The VHS era took over. Word of mouth turned a quirky James Bond parody into a cultural shorthand that we are still using in 2026. If you have ever put your pinky to your mouth and whispered "one million dollars," you are living in the shadow of Mike Myers' weirdest, most personal creation.
The Weird Origin of the Austin Powers First Movie
Most people think Mike Myers just wanted to goof on 007. That is only half of it. The real heart of the austin powers first movie actually comes from a place of grief. Myers' father, Eric Myers, passed away in 1991. His dad was a huge fan of British comedy—think Peter Sellers, The Goodies, and Monty Python.
After his father died, Mike was sort of processing that loss through the lens of the stuff they used to watch together. He was driving home from hockey practice one night when the Burt Bacharach song "The Look of Love" came on the radio. He started thinking, "Where have all the swingers gone?"
That was the spark. He first performed the character in a fake 1960s mod band called Ming Tea with Susanna Hoffs from The Bangles. His wife at the time basically told him, "You have to write a movie for this guy." So he did.
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It wasn't always a one-man show
Believe it or not, Mike Myers didn't plan on playing every single character in the beginning. He actually wanted Jim Carrey to play Dr. Evil. Carrey was interested, but the schedules didn't line up because he was filming Liar Liar. Instead of finding another actor, Myers just decided to do it himself. It was a happy accident that defined the entire trilogy’s DNA.
Why it looks so "60s" (Even the Gross Parts)
The movie is a visual love letter. It’s not just "making fun" of old movies; it is obsessed with them. Director Jay Roach, who was making his big debut here, took huge inspiration from the 1967 version of Casino Royale and the Michael Caine thriller The Ipcress File.
Take the teeth. Those famous, jagged, yellow chompers weren't just a random "ugly" choice. Myers specifically asked dental technician Gary Archer for "bad British 1960s teeth." Archer actually went to a local English pub in the San Fernando Valley and sketched the teeth of the expats drinking there to get the look right.
The Bond References are Everywhere
If you are a hardcore Bond fan, the austin powers first movie is like a giant Easter egg hunt.
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- Random Task is a direct riff on Oddjob from Goldfinger, right down to the deadly shoe throwing (instead of a hat).
- Frau Farbissina is a shout-out to Rosa Klebb from From Russia with Love.
- Even the "sharks with frickin' laser beams" gag is a dig at the escalating absurdity of the 007 gadgets during the Roger Moore era.
The Box Office Slow Burn
When the movie opened on May 2, 1997, it wasn't a "Barbenheimer" level event. It opened at number two, behind Volcano. It made about $9.5 million on its opening weekend. Total domestic gross was roughly $53 million. Not a flop, but not exactly a revolution either.
The real magic happened in the living room. It became one of the most-rented tapes in history. People watched it, memorized the lines, and then forced their friends to watch it. By the time the sequel, The Spy Who Shagged Me, hit theaters in 1999, the fan base had exploded so much that the sequel made more in its opening weekend than the first movie made in its entire theatrical run. That almost never happens in Hollywood.
A Comedy Debut for a Legend
Look closely at Dr. Evil's henchmen. You might spot a very young, pre-megastar Will Ferrell. He plays Mustafa, the guy who just won't die after being fallen into a pit of fire. It was his first-ever film role.
The cast was a weird, perfect mix. You had Elizabeth Hurley as the "straight man" (Vanessa Kensington), Robert Wagner (a real-life 60s icon) as Number Two, and Michael York as Basil Exposition. Using real stars from that era gave the movie a weird sense of legitimacy. It didn't feel like a cheap spoof; it felt like a weirdly distorted reality.
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The Beef with Dana Carvey
There is a bit of Hollywood drama behind the scenes here too. For years, there was a rumor that Dana Carvey—Myers' partner from Wayne's World—was pretty upset about Dr. Evil.
Carvey felt that the voice and the mannerisms of Dr. Evil were a direct rip-off of his own impression of Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. If you listen to old SNL clips, you can definitely hear it. The two eventually patched things up, but for a while, it was a major point of tension between the two comedy giants.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Rewatch
If you are going to revisit the austin powers first movie, don't just watch it for the "shagadelic" catchphrases. Keep an eye on the background details.
- Check the Edit: The movie originally had a much longer "unfreezing" sequence that was cut down for the U.S. theatrical release but kept for international versions.
- The Soundtrack: Listen to "Soul Bossa Nova" by Quincy Jones. It’s the theme song, and it was actually used as the theme for a Canadian game show called Definition that Myers watched as a kid.
- The Improv: About 30-40% of the movie was supposedly improvised on set. If a scene feels loose or chaotic, it probably was.
To really appreciate the craft, try watching it back-to-back with the 1962 Bond film Dr. No. You'll realize just how much of the set design, from the round tables to the Nehru jackets, was recreated with obsessive detail.
Your next step? Go find the "International Version" if you can. It contains several subplots—like the scenes involving the families of the henchmen who get killed—that add a surprisingly dark, hilarious layer of humanization to Dr. Evil’s faceless goons.