Dr. Evil is a fictional character, played by
Mike Myers in the
Austin Powers film series. He is the chief
villain of the movies, and
Austin Powers' nemesis with aspirations of
world domination. He is a
parody of any number of
James
Bond villains, primarily
Donald
Pleasance's
Ernst Stavro
Blofeld of
SPECTRE. Dr. Evil routinely
hatches schemes to
terrorize and take over
the world, and is typically accompanied by his cat Mr. Bigglesworth
and his side-kick
Mini-Me, a dwarf clone of
himself.
On May 10, 2007, Mike Myers announced that he is developing a 4th
film in the Austin Powers universe, which will focus more on the
character of Dr. Evil.
Background
According to his own account in
Austin Powers:
International Man of Mystery, delivered in a group therapy
session with his estranged son
Scott, Dr.
Evil's upbringing went as follows:
TV versions skipped the dashed dialogue and added
In the third
Austin
Powers film,
Goldmember, Dr. Evil claims
that his adopted mother was the
love-slave of the Belgian baker rather than a
prostitute.
In
Goldmember,
Nigel Powers
reveals that Dr. Evil is Austin Powers' twin brother and that his
real name is
Douglas ("Dougie") Powers. He
explains that Douglas and Austin were separated as babies following
a car explosion, and that he thought that only Austin had survived.
Dougie was
raised by Belgians
, which is
what made him so complex and evil. Interestingly, despite
the fact that he cites his home town is Bruges
, which is
situated in the Dutch-speaking
Flemish
Region
of Belgium, he claims to not know how to speak
"Freaky-Deaky Dutch".
He also attended the British Intelligence Academy with Austin
(along with
Basil Exposition and
Number 2), and is angered
that Austin won the "International Man of Mystery" award, while he,
the academy's best student, was overlooked.
In the first film, Dr. Evil is an internationally known criminal
genius
cryogenically frozen in 1967 and
reawakened in 1997. Like Austin Powers, he faces challenges in
acclimating to the new period (although he has his staff, who
remained behind, to help him).
He often places his little finger near his mouth, especially when
excited or to emphasize a statement. Although expanded upon, this
signature move may have been taken from "
Number 12 Looks Just Like
You," an episode of
The Twilight Zone in
which Dr. Rex uses the same gesture several times. Although the
idiosyncrasy was intended to be a humorous "signature move" for
Evil, the only apparent reason for Rex's use of it was to
differentiate him from several other characters (played by the same
actor) who were intentionally physically identical to him.
Evil also repetitively uses the
euphemism
frickin'. He occasionally uses unnecessary
finger quotes around now-familiar technical
terms such as
laser.
The scar on his face is a reference to similar scars on early 20th
century movie villains such as several portrayed by
Erich von Stroheim (as well as a homage
to
Donald Pleasance as
Blofeld in
You Only Live Twice). This
type of scar is usually a remnant of
Mensur fencing, an activity in which
secretive elite European student groups participate. In
Goldmember it is revealed that he has a tattoo on his
buttocks that reads "E. Diddy" and he also claimed to have
three testicles. Dr. Evil also tends to get
angry when he is referred to as "Mr. Evil" and then proceeds to say
that "didn't spend six years in evil medical school to be called
'Mr', thank you very much!".
In the first
Austin Powers film and half of the second,
Dr. Evil's eyes are brown, but in the third, Mike Myers wore
contact lenses to give his eyes an icy blue color.
Entourage
Dr. Evil employs a diverse and highly
stereotypical group of minions.
Perhaps closest to Dr. Evil is his assistant,
Frau Farbissina, founder of the militant
wing of the
Salvation Army. In the
second film,
Austin Powers: The Spy Who
Shagged Me, after imbibing some of Austin Powers' mojo Dr.
Evil becomes temporarily irresistible and they have sex. However,
this leads to an uncomfortable morning-after encounter. In the
closing credits Frau is revealed to be Scott's mother. (In the
first film, it is asserted that Scott was created via Dr. Evil's
frozen
semen.) In
Goldmember,
Farbissina and Dr. Evil also kiss while he is in prison; although
the two enjoyed it (despite Frau having been established as a
lesbian in the previous movie), the purpose was to transfer a key
to Evil so that he could escape. She is probably a parody on the
character
Rosa Klebb in the
James Bond movie
From Russia with Love, or
possibly
Irma Bunt from
On Her Majesty's Secret
Service. She does not appear to age as she looked the same
as she did in the 1960s as she did in the 1990s, which was used for
comedic effect in the film. Dr Evil meets the younger Number Two
and comments 'You look so healthy and youthful.' Farbissina's voice
is heard offscreen and Dr Evil turns and says, 'And Frau, you look
so...' as the audience is shown she has not changed at all, leading
Dr Evil to finish with '..ri-ght'.
Dr. Evil carries on a strained relationship with his son
Scott. In fact, he frequently tries to have Scott
killed, but he never succeeds. He liquidates their therapy group,
accusing them of being "insolent". Scott is also known for pointing
out Dr. Evil's incompetence and immaturity as well as obvious
mistakes and flaws in Dr. Evil's plans. For instance, when Dr. Evil
asks why Austin Powers always foils their plans, Scott says
"Because you never kill him when you have the chance and you're a
big dope". Dr. Evil mocks Scott and ignores his corrections, which
often leads to failure. Scott later grows more "evil", thus losing
his hair; this gains his father's respect momentarily, especially
after Scott provides him a pool filled with "sharks with frickin'
laser beams attached to their frickin' heads".
When Dr. Evil switches sides to help Austin save the world, Scott
takes over as the head of the evil organization.
Number 2 is the leader of
Dr. Evil's industrial empire, Virtucon. A natural businessman,
Number 2 is often more concerned about the financial aspects of
world domination than the world domination itself. In each
successive film, Number 2 has devised various schemes and ventures
which would not only garner massive profits for - and expand the
power-base of - the Virtucon empire, but would do so legitimately,
leaving the authorities with little excuse for apprehending Dr.
Evil (such as shifting their resources towards investing in
Starbucks). Evil, however, refuses to heed
Number 2's advice and has often made Number 2 suffer for his
insolence, claiming that his strategies in bringing the bacon home
are insulting to the ideals of an evil empire. Number 2 is a parody
of
Emilio Largo from
Thunderball, second in command of The
SPECTRE terrorist organization.
Mr. Bigglesworth
Mr. Bigglesworth is a
fictional cat belonging to Dr. Evil.
He was originally similar to
Blofeld's
cat, a
typical white
Persian cat from the
James Bond movie series.
He was forced to
escape hastily with Dr. Evil
in a
cryogenic capsule, but lost all of
his
fur owing to an
error
in the un
freezing process.
Mr. Bigglesworth has since that time been
bald,
played by a
Sphynx cat named Ted
NudeGent. Dr Evil's miniature clone,
Mini-Me, has a tiny cat called "Mini Mr.
Bigglesworth", presumably also a clone of Mr. Bigglesworth. One of
Doctor Evil's lines in the movie to Mini Me is "No Mini Me, we do
not gnaw on our kitty." However, in the third installment of the
franchise,
Austin Powers
in Goldmember, Mr. Bigglesworth is not seen once in the
entire length of the film, except for promotional shots, the school
flashback to when he still had
hair as a
kitten, where he was played by Baby Bigglesworth of Cozy Kittens
Cattery, and in the film within the film,
Austinpussy. He was, however, in a deleted
scene in which Dr. Evil describes what it's like to hold a hairless
cat - "like holding somebody's ass."
Fat Bastard is an immensely obese
henchman hailing from Scotland
, weighing a
metric ton. His extreme size
endows Fat Bastard with super-human strength as exhibited by his
prowess in the Sumo ring from
Goldmember. This makes him a
formidable enemy for Austin Powers. Fat Bastard is noted for his
foul temper, his frequent flatulence, his vulgar and revolting bad
manners and his unusual eating habits, which include
cannibalism, more specifically a taste for human
infants (which he calls "the other other white meat") or anything
that looks like a baby,
e.g. midgets/dwarves, which even
Dr. Evil is grossed out by. Fat Bastard was originally in the
employ of the British Ministry of Defence as a guard, but his
resentment of being told to lose weight caused him to defect, and
he stole Austin's mojo while he was in cryostasis in 1969. Fat
Bastard appears at the end of
Austin Powers in Goldmember,
having lost most of his girth, claiming he lost "180 lbs"
(contradicting the notion he weight a metric ton) and attributing
the loss to the "Subway diet", though he complains about the excess
skin left over from the weight loss.
Random Task
Dr. Evil's handyman extraordinaire is Random Task, a
Korean ex-wrestler whose personality and
assassination style is a parody to that of
Oddjob from
Goldfinger, except he throws his shoe
instead of his hat. His names themselves is are synonyms of 'odd'
and 'job'. Task repetitively cracks his neck and it is often his
job to silently move dead bodies away and move Dr. Evil's chair.
Random
Task attempts to kill Austin in his Honeymoon suite unsuccessfully
as Austin uses the Swedish
-made
penis enlarger pump on him
before Vanessa Kensington breaks
a bottle of champagne over his head
to subdue him. His unconscious but broadly-grinning body is
then placed on a trolley and pushed along the corridor of the
hotel.
Patty O'Brien is an ex-Irish assassin who is superstitious in
leaving a keepsake on his good-luck charm bracelet from every
victim he kills.
Apparently Scotland Yard
has been trying to get a hold of that bracelet for
some time. O'Brien explains in his Irish accent: "They're
always after me lucky charms!", a reference to an American
breakfast cereal television ad. Dr. Evil and Frau insult O'Brien
revealing his voice to sound like the Leprechaun mascot from the
Lucky Charms advertisement.
Unfortunately, O'Brien does not understand the reference. O'Brien
attempts to assassinate Austin by choking him with his bracelet in
the bathroom stall, but Austin drives his head into the toilet
drowning him. Patty's charms on his bracelet actually look like the
marshmallows found in
Lucky Charms cereal.
Mustafa is a
Crimean Tatar and
another notable assistant, for he designs the cryogenic freezing
process that preserves Dr. Evil for 30 years. In 1969, two years
after the 1960s Dr. Evil was frozen, Mustafa is caught by the 1990s
Austin Powers (who had followed 90's Dr. Evil through time) and is
forced to answer questions on the location of 90's Dr. Evil's
hideout (as it turns out, he can't help but answer any question
that is asked to him three times). He is silenced by Mini-Me before
he can reveal his boss's location and is nearly killed. In 1997, he
sees to it that the 90's Dr. Evil is thawed out, but he is
incinerated after he learns that the cryogenic freezing process has
left Mr. Bigglesworth completely furless. He survives, though it
takes two gunshots in the arm to silence his complaints of being in
great pain.
The second film introduces Dr. Evil's clone,
Mini-Me, who is 1/8th his size. Dr. Evil considers
him more of a real son than Scott, provoking the latter's jealousy.
Mini-Me is a parody of
Nick Nack from
The Man With The
Golden Gun and Tattoo from
Fantasy
Island (both played by
Hervé
Villechaize) and the procedure in which he was created is a
parody of the plastic surgery that
Ernst Stavro Blofeld gave to some of
his henchmen in order to duplicate himself in the film
Diamonds Are Forever.
Other assistants
In the opening few minutes of the first film, Dr. Evil has four
henchmen, namely Jurgen, Generalissimo, Rita, and Don Luigi, who
are all executed because of their failure to kill Austin Powers.
Rita was the final person to be killed. There are also unnamed
henchmen who, in
The Spy Who
Shagged Me and
Goldmember, witness Austin and Felicity and
Austin and Mini-Me, respectively, perform rather mundane tasks
which look depraved, as the henchmen are observing their
silhouettes through a tent or screen (making it appear that
Felicity is pulling objects out of Austin's bottom, whereas she is
actually pulling them out of a bag, or Austin's genitalia tossing
him an apple, which is really Mini-Me's arm).
Lairs
The Space Needle in Seattle
Parodying the many Bond villains, Dr. Evil inhabits a sequence of
elaborate lairs.
In
Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, Dr. Evil's
first lair is underground in the Nevada desert, outside Las
Vegas
; an obvious homage to Diamonds Are
Forever.
Following
a successful investment by Number 2, Dr. Evil's lair in Austin
Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is atop the Space Needle
in Seattle
, portrayed
to be the Starbucks headquarters; later,
it is housed first in a volcano with Dr. Evil's face carved into it
on a Caribbean island (an homage to both You Only Live Twice and
Live and Let Die),
and then on the moon (the film's final villainous homage, to
Moonraker). He also
has a spaceship that looks like a penis.
For the
third film, Austin Powers In Goldmember, Dr. Evil has a
new lair behind the famous Hollywood sign
and a submarine lair (it's long and hard and full
of seamen), shaped like himself (an homage to Karl Stromberg's Liparus tanker in
The Spy Who Loved
Me) and the villain Penguin's submarine which looked like
a penguin in the Batman Movie (1966).
Schemes
Dr. Evil's projects for world domination are often named after pop
culture trademarks (
Death Star,
The Alan Parsons Project,
Preparation H) and he is often unaware of the
accidental
pun. For example, when Dr. Evil says
he will turn the moon into a "
Death Star"
(said with finger quotes), Scott laughs and calls him "
Darth". Scott also coughs and mutters "Rip-off!"
After a slight pause, his father says, "Bless you."
Dr. Evil varies in how real he makes his threats out to be. When he
makes his threat of causing all of the volcanoes in the world to
erupt at once, all he does is display his machinery, something of
an homage to
Thunderball. When he makes the
threat of "Death Star", he "demonstrates" the power of his laser by
showing the President and the cabinet footage of the White House
being destroyed. After the President and the cabinet realize
they're still alive, he says "Well actually that was just footage
from the movie
Independence
Day, but the real laser would be a lot like that". With
his threat of flooding the world, he shows that the tractor beam is
real by pulling down a satellite that looks like a pair of
breasts.
A Dr. Evil impersonator.
Dr. Evil seems to have a problem in general with understanding
money, especially regarding the modern American economy and
inflation. In the first film, he intends
to hold the world ransom for one million dollars, but doesn't
understand that isn't as large a sum of money as it was in the
1960s, because of inflation, and the demand causes the U.N. to
burst out laughing. In the second film, Dr. Evil goes back to 1969
and plans to hold the world ransom for $100 billion, an amount of
money that didn't exist back then, and when he tells the amount to
the President, he receives a similar reaction as in the first film
when the President and his cabinet laugh at him. In the second
film, Dr. Evil says, "Why make trillions when we can
make...BILLIONS?" not knowing that trillions are a thousand times
larger than billions. In the third movie, he demands "1 billion,
gagillion, fafillion, shabolubalu million illion
yillion...
yen." This time his demand is
met with simple confusion from the world leaders. In his first film
his other idiotic schemes include a threat to destroy the
ozone layer and make a scandal of
Prince Charles' marriage, humorously unaware
that these were both major issues recently and have since
subsided.
One of Dr. Evil's greatest desires is to have "frickin' sharks with
frickin' laser beams attached to their frickin' heads," and is
disappointed when he can't have the sharks because of laws on
endangered species. Instead, Number 2 gives him mutated
sea bass, which Dr. Evil grudgingly accepts,
muttering "well, it's a start" (they were ill-tempered, as the bass
do manage to eat the head of one unfortunate henchman hired by Dr.
Evil). Scott however, manages to get him said sharks in the third
film as a father-son gift.
Dr. Evil can't resist cracking puns at his own work (he says his
submarine lair is "long and hard and full of seamen"). As with
Auric Goldfinger, he creates models
of his plans, worried that they are too complicated for his minions
to understand. He also cares nothing for the companies (Virtucon,
Starbucks, Hollywood Talent Agency) that
fund his plans, ignoring all suggestions from Number 2 on how to
increase the
profit of such
companies. Although he was impressed that Number 2's Hollywood
Talent Agency was able to recruit celebrities such as
George Clooney,
Julia Roberts and
Leonardo DiCaprio.
Parody
The James Bond Films
Just as Austin Powers lampoons
James
Bond, Dr. Evil
parodies several James
Bond villains. The first is
Ernst
Stavro Blofeld, as portrayed by
Donald Pleasence in the film
You Only Live Twice.
(Curiously, Pleasence was a regular to the
Halloween movie series, whose villain
is named
Michael Myers.)
Blofeld has a white
Persian cat,
parodied by Dr. Evil's Mr. Bigglesworth.
Dr. Evil also wears clothing with a strong resemblance to
Julius No, played by
Joseph Wiseman, from the film
Dr. No, specifically gray
Nehru Jacket jumpsuits
and similar anti-radiation suits. Some aspects, including some of
his quotes and his henchman Random Task, parody elements from
Goldfinger.
While Dr. Evil is primarily a send-up of the 1960s
Sean Connery-era Bond villains, the 1970s
Roger Moore-era also gets skewered: the
interior of Dr. Evil's
space station
in
The Spy Who Shagged Me resembles
Hugo Drax's space station from
Moonraker, and the film's title spoofs
The Spy Who Loved
Me. Dr. Evil has
three
testicles, as is proven in
Goldmember when he checks
to see that "they're all there" following a rather painful blow to
his groin. This is most likely a nod to James Bond villain
Francisco Scaramanga from
1974's The Man with the Golden
Gun, who has three nipples. Mini-Me may also be another
reference to Scaramanga, who has a
dwarf
servant named
Nick Nack.
Others
Some of Dr. Evil's facial and vocal expressions are allegedly
patterned after
Lorne Michaels,
producer of television's
Saturday Night Live, where Myers
worked for a number of years. As Dr. Evil, Myers occasionally
affects an
Ontario accent,
reflecting his upbringing.
In Popular Culture
- Jamaican
dancehall artist Craig
"Leftside" Parks took up the stage name "Dr. Evil," "toasting"
(rapping) with the same vocal pattern as the character. He
is now known as "Mr. Evil".
- In The Chowder
episode "Gazpacho Fights Back", Chowder does the same impression
that he does in the movie.
- In The ReBoot episode "Daemon
Rising part 2", Enzo, Matrix, Andrea and Frisket 'reboot' into Dr.
Evil, Mini Me, Mr. Bigglesworth, etc.; Matrix does the same
impression that Dr. Evil does in the movie.
- In World of Warcraft,
an important raid instance named Naxxramas have Mr
Bigglesworth, a cat which appears at the beginning of the
instance. Upon killing the cat, that master of the instance will
curse you and promise to punish you dearly.
References
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