Mike Myers’ widely adored Austin Powers movies primarily spoof the tropes and conventions of the James Bond franchise. Goldmember is a crude play on Goldfinger, The Spy Who Shagged Me is a crude play on The Spy Who Loved Me, and Dr. Evil is a spot-on parody of 007’s megalomaniacal villains.
But Bond isn’t the only cinematic icon referenced in the Austin Powers series. Myers and co. also mixed in satirical jabs at the Swinging Sixties and references to a litany of other movie classics.
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
If the satire of the Austin Powers franchise could be boiled down to two specific targets, it would be the well-worn tropes of the James Bond franchise and the bygone culture of the Swinging Sixties. ‘60s pop culture is largely defined by the music of the Beatles and the surrounding Beatlemania phenomenon, so it’s appropriate that Austin’s first big-screen outing opens with a nod to the Fab Four’s first big-screen outing.
The opening sequence of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery directly recreates the opening sequence of A Hard Day’s Night with Austin being chased through the streets of London by screaming female fans.
Star Wars (1977)
The second Austin Powers movie, The Spy Who Shagged Me, opens with text crawling through outer space like every entry in the mainline Star Wars saga. This is the first of many Star Wars gags throughout the movie.
It’s appropriate that the Austin Powers parody of Moonraker is filled with Star Wars references, because the Bond producers only sent 007 to space in the first place as a response to the resurgence of science fiction brought on by the success of George Lucas’ space opera.
The Blues Brothers (1980)
When Austin is unfrozen in the 1990s at the beginning of the first movie, all of his personal possessions from the 1960s are returned to him. The items become increasingly bizarre and embarrassing as the scene goes on.
This is a nod to a similar sequence at the beginning of The Blues Brothers when Jake Blues is released from prison and his personal belongings are returned to him.
Back To The Future (1985)
Both the second and third Austin Powers movies deal with time travel. Time travel has never been a plot point in a Bond movie, but Christopher Nolan’s spy-fi thriller Tenet gave audiences an idea of what a time-traveling Bond film might look like.
The time machine that Basil gives to Austin is made out of a car, like the iconic DeLorean time machine in Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future trilogy.
Jerry Maguire (1996)
After getting used to life in the 1990s and then traveling back in time to the 1960s, Dr. Evil can’t seem to grasp that his ‘90s pop culture references don’t make sense in the ‘60s.
When he’s speaking to the U.S. President in the ‘60s, Dr. Evil quotes Jerry Maguire’s most memorable lines – “You had me at hello,” and “Show me the money!” – but the reference is lost on the President. No matter how many times Scott points it out, Dr. Evil doesn’t get it.
Alien (1979)
Ridley Scott’s Alien is a sci-fi horror masterpiece that transplants the basic structure of a haunted house movie into the mind-bending vacuum of space.
Scott gave horror fans one of the genre’s most unforgettable moments when the baby xenomorph bursts out of Kane’s chest during a casual dinner. This sequence is parodied in The Spy Who Shagged Me when Mini-Me bursts out of Austin’s spacesuit.
Godzilla (1954)
The globetrotting aspect of Bond’s adventures was incorporated into Goldmember as Austin is sent to Japan as part of his investigation. The sequence has a nod to one of Japanese cinema’s most revered cinematic classics: the mother of all monster movies, 1954’s Godzilla.
When Austin’s car moves a statue of Godzilla around the city, the surrounding civilians mistake it for the real deal. One man says, “Run! It’s Godzilla!” Another man clarifies, “It looks like Godzilla, but due to international copyright laws, it is not.”
The Exorcist (1973)
When Dr. Evil tries to adjust his chair in his evil lair, it starts spinning out of control and moving up and down at will. He draws a hilarious parallel between his malfunctioning chair and the possessed 12-year-old from William Friedkin’s horror masterpiece The Exorcist.
While his chair is spinning uncontrollably, Dr. Evil riffs on a bunch of Exorcist references, saying he needs a young priest and an old priest to help out and quipping, “The power of Christ compels you!”
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
One of the many Star Wars references in The Spy Who Shagged Me sees Dr. Evil paraphrasing the saga’s most shocking plot twist from The Empire Strikes Back: “Austin, I am your father.”
A baffled Austin asks, “Really?” Dr. Evil bluntly replies, “No, not really. I can’t actually back that up.” This response hilariously deflates the tension of arguably the greatest plot twist in movie history.
Shrek (2001)
In addition to homaging the work of a bunch of other filmmakers in the Austin Powers franchise, Myers homaged his own work in the DreamWorks Animation gem Shrek.
In Goldmember, when Austin meets a pair of twins at a party, he tells one of them, “You’re going the right way for a smacked bottom,” referencing Shrek’s classic line to Donkey.
