Jump to content

Austin Powers in Goldmember

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Catbar (talk | contribs) at 23:54, 11 January 2008 (→‎Cast: disambiguate Fat Bastard). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Austin Powers in Goldmember
The theatrical poster of Austin Powers in Goldmember
Directed byJay Roach
Written byMike Myers
Michael McCullers
Produced byToby Emmerich
Richard Brener
John S. Lyons
Eric McLeod
Demi Moore
Mike Myers
Jennifer Todd
Suzanne Todd
StarringMike Myers
Beyoncé Knowles
Seth Green
Michael York
Robert Wagner
Michael Caine
Verne Troyer
CinematographyPeter Deming
Edited byGreg Hayden
Jon Poll
Music byGeorge S. Clinton
Quincy Jones (song "Soul Bossa Nova")
Distributed byUnited StatesNew Line Cinema
United KingdomEntertainment Film Distributors
Release dates
July 26, 2002
Running time
94 minutes
Country United States
LanguageEnglish

Austin Powers in Goldmember is the third film of the Austin Powers series starring Mike Myers in the title role. The movie was directed by Jay Roach, and co-written by Mike Myers and Michael McCullers. Myers also plays the roles of Dr. Evil, Goldmember and Fat Bastard. The movie co-stars Beyoncé Knowles, Robert Wagner, Seth Green, Michael York, Verne Troyer, Michael Caine and Fred Savage. There are a number of cameo appearances including Britney Spears, Quincy Jones, Katie Couric, Nathan Lane and The Osbournes.

In a self-parody of the Austin Powers series, there is a film within the film. Austin Powers is featured in a bio-pic called Austinpussy directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise as Austin Powers, Gwyneth Paltrow as Dixie Normous, Kevin Spacey as Dr. Evil, Danny DeVito as Mini-Me, and John Travolta as Goldmember.

Goldmember is a loose parody of the James Bond movies Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice also incorporating elements of The Spy Who Loved Me. The film took in approximately $288 million from movie tickets worldwide.

Production

Naming concerns

The title of the film Goldmember led to legal action being taken by MGM, the distributors of the James Bond film franchise, that briefly led to the film's title being removed from promotional material and trailers. The dispute was quickly resolved and the film title remained unchanged, on the provision that the film would include trailers in its cinema releases for the then-upcoming James Bond film Die Another Day and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.[1] Ironically, MGM is now the TV distributor for New Line's films and TV series.

Austinpussy

The name of the film-within-a-film, Austinpussy, was a candidate for the title of the second film.[citation needed] Eventually, it was given to the title of the film-in-a-film, due to the mature nature of the word (though ironically the second film's new title is considered equally vulgar in the United Kingdom).[citation needed] Austinpussy is a word-play on the Bond film Octopussy.

Steven Spielberg's cameo is arguably an in-joke reference to the fact that Spielberg had always wanted to direct a James Bond movie which is mentioned by Spielberg in a Raiders of the Lost Ark documentary.[citation needed]

Characters

Austin Powers (Myers), having conquered the '90s and the '60s, travels back to the 1970s and teams up with his nemesis Dr. Evil (also played by Myers) to thwart a new villain, Goldmember (Myers once again). Myers also plays Fat Bastard for the second time, this time parodying the kind of "wire fight" seen in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film also stars Beyoncé Knowles as Foxxy Cleopatra (parodying a blaxploitation movie heroine), Michael York reprising the role of Basil Exposition, Verne Troyer in his second appearance as Mini-Me. The Film also introduced a new character named Number 3 A.K.A. the Mole. The actor Clint Howard plays a radar operator in all three movies.

Three actors who appeared in the earlier movies play different characters in Goldmember. Rob Lowe who played the friend of a dead guard in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery reprises his role as a younger Number 2 from The Spy Who Shagged Me, while Neil Mullarkey (quartermaster clerk in International Man Of Mystery) and Eric Winzenried (army private soldier in The Spy Who Shagged Me) appear as the Physician and Henchman Sailor in the Sick Bay.

Goldmember

Johan van der Smut, better known as Goldmember, is a fictional villain played by Mike Myers (John Travolta played the character in a cameo at the end of the film). The name was inspired by the James Bond villain Auric Goldfinger. Goldmember's Dutch origins and character traits, were according to Myers inspired by an episode of the HBO TV series Real Sex. The show featured a Dutchman who operated a "sex barn" north of Rotterdam, the man's distinct forms of expression caught Myers' attention whilst he was writing.[2]

Plot

Dr Evil's new lair lies behind the Hollywood sign

The movie starts with Austin watching a movie preview starring Tom Cruise as Austin Powers, directed by Steven Spielberg. Austin accepts the compliment and goes on his usual dance in the beginning until he and his group stumble on Britney Spears in the middle of a music video shoot (for her song "Boys"). Austin and Britney start a dance off until Britney turns out to be a fembot when twin machine gun barrels pop out of her leather top. She tries to kill Austin but fails, and Austin uses his mojo to make her head blow up.

The year is 2002. In his new underground lair behind the famous Hollywood sign, Dr. Evil outlines his latest evil plan. Using a time machine he will go back to 1975 and bring back a Dutchman, Johan van der Smut (alias Goldmember), who had developed a cold fusion unit for a tractor beam. He intends to use the tractor beam to pull a golden meteor into the Earth to strike and melt the polar ice caps and cause global flooding. However, the plot is discovered by the British Secret Service, and Austin leads a group of commandos to arrest Dr. Evil and place him in a maximum security prison.

Austin is knighted for his services but is disappointed when his father (the famous super-spy Nigel Powers) fails to attend the investiture. However, he later learns that his father was kidnapped from his yacht and that some of the crew have had their genitals painted with gold. It was immediately revealed to Austin that Nigel was kidnapped after he skipped out on the knighting ceremony. In search of answers, Austin visits the imprisoned Dr. Evil, who tells him that the insane Goldmember is behind the abduction and on condition that he is transferred to a normal prison, reveals that he is in 1975.

Traveling back to 1975, Austin infiltrates Goldmember's roller disco club "Studio 69" and begins the search. Austin meets up with Foxxy Cleopatra—an old flame and FBI agent—who is working undercover in the club. Austin locates his father but before they can escape they are delivered into Goldmember’s inner sanctum. Goldmember abducts Nigel to 2002 in Dr. Evil’s time machine. Austin and Foxxy give chase in the MOD’s time-travel device (a pimpmobile).

File:Goldmemberfoxy.jpg
Austin Powers with Foxxy Cleopatra (Beyonce Knowles)

Back in 2002, Frau Farbissina visits Dr. Evil is in his normal prison and tells him that his son, Scott, wants to take over the family business and has started becoming evil to the point of losing his hair. By way of a kiss, Frau passes a key to Dr. Evil. The other prisoners are encouraged to start a riot, which distracts the guards and permits Dr. Evil and Mini-Me to escape.

A British Intelligence mole in Dr. Evil’s organization informs Austin that Dr. Evil has moved to a new lair somewhere near Tokyo, Japan. Austin and Foxxy fly to Tokyo where they are informed that Dr. Evil's henchman Fat Bastard is wrestling at the Asahi Sumo Arena. Slipping into the changing rooms, Austin confronts Fat Bastard and manages to subdue him after a botched wire-assisted jump. Fat Bastard confesses that a Japanese businessman, Mr. Roboto, is making some sort of contraption for Dr. Evil.

Dr. Evil’s new lair is a submarine lurking in Tokyo Bay. Goldmember tells Dr. Evil that they have the ultimate insurance policy in Austin Power’s father. Mini-Me escorts Nigel to his cell but he starts to subvert Mini-Me. Later, Scott presents his father with a pair of sharks with laser beams attached to their heads. Overjoyed, Dr. Evil professes his love for his son and seats Scott at his right hand, displacing Mini-Me, who leaves dejected.

Austin and Foxxy meet with Mr. Roboto, who pleads ignorance about Nigel’s whereabouts. Unconvinced by his denial, Austin and Foxxy infiltrate Roboto's factory where the command unit for the tractor beam is being loaded in Goldmember's car. Roboto hands Goldmember a golden key which is needed to activate the beam. Foxxy confronts Goldmember, but Nigel is about to have an "unfortunate smelting accident" and Goldmember escapes as Nigel is being rescued. They chase Goldmember through Tokyo, but he reaches the safety of Dr. Evil's sub which departs before they can apprehend him. Austin and Nigel dispute the course of action but cannot agree, and go their separate ways.

File:Goldmemberdutchman.jpg
Goldmember

In Austin’s hotel, the mole has arranged the defection of Mini-Me. Austin, Foxxy and Mini-Me (now an Austin Mini) use Nigel's spy car in submarine mode to reach Dr. Evil’s lair and gain entry. Foxxy splits up from Austin and Mini-Me, and they begin to search the sub.

In the control room, Dr. Evil threatens the World Organization with a global flood. To prove he isn't bluffing, he uses the tractor beam to pull a satellite out of orbit. Following the successful trial of the beam, Roboto demands a bonus which Dr. Evil refuses. Becoming more evil, Scott takes over and disposes of Roboto in the shark tank.

Adopting a disguise Austin and Mini-Me are waylaid by the medical officer but obtain a plan of the vessel. Rumbled by the MO, Mini-Me escapes and meets up with Foxxy while Austin is taken to the control room.

Dr. Evil offers to show Austin his plan before killing him, but the activation key is missing. Foxxy and Mini-Me enter with guns and the missing key. Austin now threatens Dr. Evil at gunpoint, but his father intervenes and reveals that Dr. Evil and Austin are brothers, separated at an early age during an assassination attempt. The three are reconciled, but Scott interrupts, angry that now that he's finally become evil his father is turning good. Declaring that he hates them all, he vows revenge and leaves.

However, Goldmember intends to complete the destruction of the world. Although Foxxy throws the activation key into the shark tank Goldmember has a spare, his gold-plated penis. As Goldmember begins to activate the tractor beam, Dr. Evil reverses the polarity of the cold fusion unit, which electrocutes and kills Goldmember and destroys the meteor.

Then it suddenly appears this entire string of events was actually adapted into a film by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise. The whole Austin Powers cast (aside from Scott) are in the audience of a Hollywood theater, and enjoy watching the film. Upon exiting, they bump into Fat Bastard, but he isn't fat anymore - he took the Subway diet and lost a lot of weight, and is now very thin. Austin and Foxy congratulate him on this achievement, until "Fat" Bastard reveals all of his excess skin sagging off his muscles, and adds that his neck looks like a vagina. Austin and Foxxy kiss under fireworks.

Alone in Dr. Evil's Hollywood lair, a completely bald, maniacal Scott declares that he will get Austin Powers and then proceeds to inexplicably get out of his chair and dance like Michael Jackson.

Cast

Cameos

Release

The film took £5,585,978 in the UK on the opening weekend.

Soundtrack

Untitled

The song "Hey Goldmember" is a parody of three '70s disco songs formed into a medley; "Get Down Tonight", "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty", and "That's the Way (I Like It)", all by KC and the Sunshine Band.

Original soundtrack track listing

  1. "Work It Out" – Beyoncé
  2. "Miss You" (Dr. Dre Remix 2002) – The Rolling Stones
  3. "Boys" (Co-Ed Remix) – Britney Spears featuring Pharrell Williams of N*E*R*D
  4. "Groove Me" – Angie Stone
  5. "Shining Star" – Earth, Wind & Fire
  6. "Hey Goldmember" – Foxxy Cleopatra featuring Devin and Solange
  7. "Ain't No Mystery" – Smash Mouth
  8. "Evil Woman" – Soul Hooligan featuring Diana King
  9. "1975" – Paul Oakenfold
  10. "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" (Dr. Evil Remix) – Dr. Evil
  11. "Daddy Wasn't There" – Ming Tea featuring Austin Powers
  12. "Alfie (What's It All About, Austin?)" – Susanna Hoffs

Filming locations

The following is a list of known locations during the filming of Austin Powers in Goldmember.

  • Moab, Utah (Austinpussy sequence)
  • Georgia State Prison (Outside Prison View; Mock internal view of older visitation section)

Trivia

  • The name Goldmember may actually stem from a caustic remark that originated when James Bond-author Ian Fleming named the villain for his novel Goldfinger borrowing it from his neighbor, architect Ernő Goldfinger, to whom the character bore some resemblance. Erno Goldfinger consulted his lawyers when the book was published, prompting Fleming to suggest renaming the character "Goldprick", but eventually settled out of court in return for his costs, six copies of the book, and an agreement that the character's first name Auric would always be used.
  • While one of the catches is that Goldmember comes from the Netherlands; he actually speaks German.
  • Another act of censorship, though this is only on the televised version (at least the TBS version) changes the word PLAYBOY on the magazine cover Nigel Powers appears on to PLAYBYO.
  • During the news report on the capture of Doctor Evil, the ticker scrolls by reading 'Toronto voted greatest city in the world.', and also 'The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup." These are an homage to Mike Myers' hometown and his passion for their hockey team.
  • Nigel Powers' Mini is a clear reference to a previous Michael Caine film, The Italian Job, in which the getaway cars are classic Minis.
  • The idea to pull a golden meteor to earth was most likely inspired by the Jules Verne book, The Chase of the Golden Meteor in which a similar event occurs.
  • The footage of a younger Nigel Powers during the flashback scene is from actor Michael Caine's film Hurry Sundown (1967).
  • Mike Myers has said that his glasses in all three films are meant to look like those worn by Michael Caine in The Ipcress File (1965), so Caine took the original glasses (model "Teviot 74" by UK Optical) to the set and wore them as Nigel.
  • Goldmember's heavy German accent being misunderstood by many of the other characters may be a reference to Gert Fröbe himself having to be dubbed over in Goldfinger due to his own heavy accent.
  • In a deleted scene, it suggests that Austin got his "sexy bitch" and "yeah baby yeah" when he was a teenager at the academy and he heard two friends say "Jason and Nathan are sexy bitches! yeah baby yeah!"
  • In the scene where Goldmember is escaping to the submarine, he talks over a CB Radio to Doctor Evil and refers to him as Rubber Duck - a direct reference to the 1978 film Convoy.
  • At the end of the Austin Powers movie sequence in the beginning of the film, Tom Cruise makes a cameo as Austin Powers and Danny DeVito also makes a cameo as Mini-Me and fires a machine gun wildly into the air. The gun is, appropriately enough, an FN Minimi.
  • The names of the Japanese twins, Fook Mi and Fook Yu, are not romanized correctly; the more correct spelling (using Hepburn romanization) would be "Fuku Mi" and "Fuku Yu" (the term sailor fuku also being a style of schoolgirls' uniform which the girls wear). However, a deleted scene indicates that the two girls are actually American, and that they made up these names without knowing Japanese.
  • Assuming that Nigel Powers has not undergone time-travel until being kidnapped by Goldmember, he would be much older than he is portrayed as by 68 year old Michael Caine. If his son Austin graduated "the Academy" in 1958 then his father would be over 80 in 2002.
  • In the film's opening sequence where Austin and his gang interrupt Britney Spears' video shoot, the two have a dance-off. Myers also makes a cameo appearance in the actual music video for "Boys (Co-Ed Remix)" that Spears was "filming". In the video, the two share a rematch dance-off, this time with Spears winning.
  • When this film aired on TV, during the scene where Mr. Roboto talks to Austin and Foxxy and the subtitles are being blocked by different items, the "Please eat some shit" ("Please eat some shitake mushrooms") was changed to "Please eat some dung" ("Please eat some dungeness crab").
  • There are several Pokémon characters in the Tokyo scenes of the movie, when Austin's car has a large Godzilla on it, a man in a Charmander suit runs across the street in clear view, in a deleted scene when Austin and Foxy get out of the car in Tokyo there is a person in a Celebi suit standing in the crowd, in another deleted scene, there is a stuffed animal that resembles Dragonite on a vendors kiosk.
  • Two future Heroes members make appearances in the movie. Masi Oka appears as the man who talks about the international copyright laws of Godzilla. Greg Grunberg plays one of the Titans fans.

Words

In Goldmember, Austin Powers and his father use slang words to describe the male penis.

  • Bobby Dangler
  • General, Two Colonels
  • Gigglestick
  • Tripod (in reference to Mini-Me)
  • Meat and Two Veg.
  • One Eyed Trouser Snake
  • Golden Tallywackers
  • Gilded Wedding Tackle

References

  1. ^ "Spy vs. spy ends amicably". usatoday.com. Retrieved 07 April. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ USA Today- movie news (date 2002-07-25)
Wikiquote has quotations related to Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Austin_Powers_in_Goldmember&oldid=183739810"