Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me - Cultural References

Cultural References

• A picture of a shark with a laser beam on its head is found by the condiments table. This is a reference to Dr. Evil's demand for "sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads" in the first film.
• When Dr. Evil tells his son Scott to "Zip it", he says, "Look, I'm Zippi Longstockings!!" He also sings "Zip It" to the tune of Devo's "Whip It".
• Dr. Evil calls the laser on the moon a "Death Star" a reference from Star Wars. Scott laughs at this and replies to Dr. Evil's questioning with "Nothing, Darth", a reference to Darth Vader.
• When Fat Bastard first makes threats to eat Mini Me, he sings the "Chili's (Welcome to Chili's!)" advertising jingle.
• In the scene when Mustafa attacks Austin and Felicity, he brandishes a large knife and cries "Daktari!" "Daktari" is the Swahili word for doctor and is either a reference to the 1960s children's TV series, Daktari, or a battle cry adopted by Mustafa for his employer, Dr. Evil, or both. Because the fez-wearing Mustafa is presumably of North African origin, it is odd that he would use the Swahili word for doctor instead of the Arabic word, طبيب tabiyb.
• Dr. Evil's Base in the moon is divided in two units: Moon Unit Alpha and Moon Unit Zappa - the latter being the name of Frank Zappa's daughter, Moon Unit Zappa.
• Dr. Evil names his moon-based laser after the Progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project. Correspondingly, in 1999, Alan Parsons released an album entitled The Time Machine, which featured a bonus track titled "Dr. Evil Edit" featuring Mike Myers.
• When Dr. Evil threatens the 1969 U.S. government with his laser, he uses the White House explosion scene from the Independence Day film trailer to demonstrate its destructive capabilities.
• When the president and his cabinet laugh at Dr. Evil's demands of $100 billion, Dr. Evil responds with the line, "Show me the money!", which is from the 1996 film Jerry Maguire.
• The scene of Austin and Felicity leaving for the moon uses rocket launch scenes from Apollo 13.
• Before Austin and Felicity make their escape back to 1999, Felicity tells Austin she wants to experience the 1970s and 1980s. Austin tells her there is nothing to see in those eras except "a gas shortage and A Flock of Seagulls" (the former being the 1973 oil crisis and the latter being either the 1980s New Wave band or Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull book and film, a strong cultural meme in the mid-1970s).
• When Dr. Evil's chair on the moon experiences a malfunction giving it an apparent mind of its own, he quotes from the 1973 film The Exorcist, with "I need an old Priest and a young Priest" followed by "The power of Christ compels you!" and much violence to the chair.
• The film has many references to the James Bond franchise. But especially the James Bond films You Only Live Twice and Moonraker. As well as the title being a parody of The Spy Who Loved Me.
• When Dr. Evil's assassin tries to kill Austin Powers in a 1969 club he sees her accomplice's reflection by looking into her eyes. This is a reference to the James Bond film Goldfinger, and Thunderball, in which Bond does the same thing.
• When Austin travels back in time he uses a Volkswagen New Beetle to travel back in time just like Marty McFly did with a Delorean DMC-12 in the "Back to the Future Trilogy"
• In the scene where Felicity and Austin defeat Mustafa, Austin questions him about who sent him, and he tells him to "kiss his ass" twice, but immediately answers the next time. This is a comment on how in many spy films villains who insist that they will never reveal who sent them end up opening up quite easily.
• Austin & Felicity approach Dr Evil's hollowed out volcano hideout in a yellow submarine, a reference to the Beatles 1966 song "Yellow Submarine" and/or the 1968 Yellow Submarine animation movie based on the song.