Austin Powers
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"I haven't laughed that hard since I was a little girl. Thank you." - Dr. Evil

Douglas Powers, more commonly known as Dr. Evil, is the main antagonist of the Austin Powers franchise. He is Austin Powers' former arch-nemesis and twin brother, Scott's father, Number 2 and Frau Farbissina's leader and boss, and Mini-Me's genetic template and father. 

Early Life[]

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Baby Douglas

In his infancy, Douglas Powers was taken on a trip to Belgium with his family. When his father stopped to urinate, the car was blown up. Douglas managed to survive the explosion and was found by a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner and his French prostitute with webbed feet.

They adopted Douglas, giving him the last name Evil. At the age of 12, he received his first scribe. At the age of 14, a Zoroastrian woman named Velma ritualistically shaved his testicles.

Prior to age 18, Douglas Evil entered the British Intelligence Academy to become an International Man of Mystery. Unknown to Douglas, his roommate, Austin Powers, was actually his long lost brother. It was during his time at the academy that he would meet the man that would eventually become the number two in his organization, Number 2. It was also during this time that he got his pet cat, Mr. Bigglesworth.

Douglas Evil had the highest marks in the class, but Austin Powers was chosen to be that year's International Man of Mystery. Douglas did get the last laugh, however, when he got to join with the others laughing at Austin when his father no-showed the event. Despite this, Douglas Evil was furious that he had the best grades in the class and didn't get diddly-squat, so he dropped out of the Academy and instead went to Evil Medical School for six years, attaining a doctorate and henceforth going by the name "Doctor Evil."

1967 (International Man of Mystery)[]

In 1967, Doctor Evil hired 7 of the world's Greatest assassins (Michael Gallagher, Rory Price, Ross, Gavin Bree, Frau Farbissina, Mustafa, and Leo Boyle) to kill his arch-nemesis, Austin Powers. However, they all failed, Dr. Evil calls them “fricking idiots” and angrily executed 5/7 them by sending them down into pits of fire with trapdoors underneath their chairs but spares Mustafa and Frau Farbissina. He set a trap for Austin Powers at the Electric Psychadelic Pussycat Swinger's Club, but his attempt to kill Austin failed. He managed to escape by cryogenically freezing himself and launching himself into space in a Big Boy rocket, planning to return at a time when free love no longer reigned and greed and corruption ruled again.

1997 (International Man of Mystery)[]

Drevilslair

Dr. Evil's lair

Thirty years later, the Big Boy rocket broke orbit and returned to Earth, travelling to his underground lair in Nevada. However, due to a complication in the unfreezing process, his cat, Mr. Bigglesworth, lost all his fur, and Dr. Evil burns Mustafa for his mistake but he survives and a henchman had to come and shoot him. He then began to plot evil, much to the chagrin of his associate, Number Two, who had spent the past thirty years turning Dr. Evil's front company, Virtucon, into a multi-billion-dollar corporation.

Showing how disconnected he is after missing thirty years of history, Dr. Evil proposes plans to make it look like Prince Charles had an affair and therefore would have to divorce, and to punch a hole in the ozone layer. However, Number Two informs him those events have already happened, and Dr. Evil comes up with a plan to hijack a warhead from a breakaway Russian republic and hold the world hostage for one million dollars (corrected to one hundred billion dollars at Number Two's suggestion.)

It is also during this time that Dr. Evil is introduced to his "test tube baby" son, Scott Evil. Despite Dr. Evil's best efforts, Scott wants nothing to do with him, and it would take a long time for them to develop any kind of meaningful relationship.

Having successfully hijacked the warhead, he proceeds to go through with his plan of launching the warhead, via a subterranean drill, to the Earth's core, causing a detonation that would cause every volcano on Earth to erupt simultaneously. Unfortunately, his arch-nemesis, Austin Powers, who also frozen himself thirty years ago, returns. Dr. Evil successfully captures him but makes the mistake of leaving him in an easily escapable situation. Austin manages to escape and foils Dr. Evil's plan, but Dr. Evil escapes into space once again.

1999 (The Spy Who Shagged Me)[]

Two years later, Dr. Evil returned from space again, and is introduced to his new "child," an exact clone of him that he names "Mini-Me." After instantly becoming enamored with his 1/8th sized clone, Dr. Evil revealed his new plan. He informed his minions of the source of Austin Powers’s, well… “Power:” his mojo. A combination of Austin’s libido and life force, Dr. Evil intended to use the time machine to travel back to 1969, two years after Austin’s was frozen in 1967, and extract Austin’s mojo from his body, hoping it would render Austin helpless and powerless.

1969 (The Spy Who Shagged Me)[]

Through the use of a time machine, Doctor Evil, along with Mini-Me, successfully traveled back in time to 1969 and rendezvoused with his minions' past selves in his new secret volcano lair. He then revealed that he intended to use an undercover agent in the Ministry of Defense named Fat Bastard, to infiltrate the Ministry and steal Austin's mojo. This plan was successful, as Fat Bastard drilled into the frozen Austin’s cryo-pod and drained the mojo out of Austin’s family jewels, rendering the International Man of Mystery completely impotent in the middle of sex with Ivana Humpalot in 1999.

After receiving it from Fat Bastard, Doctor Evil, out of curiosity and perhaps even some sexual envy of Austin’s sexual prowess, decided to sample the mojo with just a tiny sip of the it. This single sip provided him immediately with an enhanced libido which resulted in him having a one-night stand with Frau Farbissna. This would change history by making Scott Evil Frau's love child with Doctor Evil instead of a test tube baby. Additionally, with him now holding Austin’s mojo hostage, he revealed the second phase of his 1969 plan, the Alan Parsons Project, which involved planting a giant "laser" on the moon and turning it into what he calls a "Death Star."

However, Austin Powers had followed Dr. Evil into the past in an attempt to foil Dr. Evil’s plan and recover his mojo to cure his erectile dysfunction. When Austin arrived on the moon to confront his nemesis, Dr. Evil managed to capture his assistant and new lover, Felicity Shagwell, and left him him with a choice: Either save the world or save his girlfriend. Austin reluctantly chose to save the world, preventing Frau from using the laser to destroy Washington, D.C., but this led to Felicity dying from poison gas. Dr. Evil nearly escaped, but an enraged Austin pursued him and shot him, planning to kill Dr. Evil to get revenge for Felicity’s murder. To save himself, Dr. Evil then told Austin Powers about the time machine and suggested he use it to go back in time to save Felicity. Austin did so, traveling back ten minutes into the past and teamed up with his past self to redirect the laser AND save Felicity.

Both Austins managed to save both Felicity and the world, but Dr. Evil still had one trick to play. As both Austins flirted with each other and Future Austin/Austin-From-Ten-Minutes-From-Now attempted to kiss Felicity, Dr. Evil revealed the vial of Austin’s mojo. In an attempt to finally kill his hated rival, Dr. Evil triggered the self-destruct on his moon base and threw Austin’s mojo into the air, causing both Austins to naturally attempt to catch it, hoping it would distract Austin long enough to be caught in the explosion. The past and present Austin unwittingly crashed into each other, causing them to fail in saving their mojo as the vial crashed to the floor and was destroyed. Dr. Evil then proceeded to laugh maniacally, likely knowing that even if Austin survived the explosion, he (seemingly) had at least condemned Austin to eternal impotence and escaped into space with his rocket, and recovers Mini-Me, who was ejected into space earlier thanks to Austin.

2002 (Goldmember)[]

After spending thirty three years in space, Doctor Evil finally returns to his new lair, which was set up behind the Hollywood Sign. He reveals his new plan: to go back in time and make contact with Johann van der Smut, AKA Goldmember, to use his Preparation H tractor beam to pull in a giant golden asteroid to destroy the Earth. However, he is captured by Austin Powers at last and sentenced to 400 years in Georgia State Prison by Chief Justice Obudu.

While in maximum security, Dr. Evil is visited by Austin, who needs information about Goldmember. After reminding Austin of their academy days, Dr. Evil gives Austin information on when Goldmember is in exchange for a transfer to a regular prison. After his transfer, Dr. Evil is visited by Frau. After the story of his birth, Frau tells him that Scott is joining the family business of evil, and is even losing his hair. While Austin is busy in 1975, Dr. Evil does a rendition of "Hard Knock Life" along with Mini-Me in order to convince the other inmates to create a distraction so he can escape prison.

After his escape, Dr. Evil makes contact with Goldmember, who has come to the future with Austin Power's father, Nigel Powers, and they worked together on the Preparation H Project. It is during this time that his son Scott embraces becoming evil to the point that he starts losing his hair, and he is won over by Scott presenting him with what he always wanted: "Frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads." The now-shunned Mini-Me leaves, and later defects to Austin's side.

During the climax of the film, Nigel Powers steps in to protect Dr. Evil from Austin Powers, and finally reveals the truth that Doctor Evil is also his son, and Austin and Douglas are twin brothers. Touched by this, Doctor Evil decides to abandon the plan and turn good, much to Scott's dismay and anger and turning evil. Austin and Dr. Evil work together to stop Goldmember from using the Preparation H tractor beam to destroy the world, and Goldmember is arrested. Scott succeeds him afterwards.

Later, Dr. Evil attends the premiere of "Austinpussy" along with his reunited family except Scott because he and Goldmember refuse to turn good.

Personality[]

Dr. Evil is unquestionably a genius. Inventing numerous "evil" devices to further his goals which tend to shift between global domination and global destruction fairly frequently. He has, however, described himself as a "hands off" type of genius meaning he prefers others to do the manual work for him. Those others, he would like, are deaf and blind so they cannot see the good guys coming. He feels he doesn't need an adversary; he could be better off just winning. Therefore, he is his own worst enemy.

Though he has a high degree of intelligence he is prone to absent mindedness, childishness and has a tendency to do things counter productive to his plots. Such as leaving Austin in easily escapable death traps even when his son points out that he could just shoot him. He can be extremely immature, speaking over Scott when his son is trying reason with his fathers line of thinking, or bullying Number 2 when he also points out fault in Dr. Evil's plans. He lists the key elements to a good world domination plan:

  1. Thermonuclear device
  2. Exotic delivery system
  3. Closed circuit TV to talk to the President / UN
  4. Sense of self
  5. There is no fifth

Due to his suspended animation, Dr. Evil is very behind the times and will often name his plans or projects as things that exist past 1969 when he was frozen. The best example of this is when he threatened the 90's government for $1,000,000 since he was not aware that the amount of money was not as valuable as it had been 30 years ago. Similarly, he threatened the US Government for $100,000,000,000 during the 1960s, but was apparently unaware that such an amount of money did not even exist during that time.

Although fully aware of his evil nature, he apparently has some reservations, as when Goldmember offered to paint Austin Powers' crotch gold, Dr. Evil slowly approached Goldmember with evident disgust on his face and bluntly refused his offer. Similarly, when Mr. Roboto was executed, he was shown to be somewhat disturbed by Scott Evil's more excessive laughter.

Family[]

Trivia[]

  • Whenever Dr. Evil gets a plan he would gently put his finger to his bottom lip and do a dramatic stare.
  • Despite his apparent lack of respect for his son, Scott, he seems to care for his son's well being. This is especially evident when Dr. Evil says "no one talks to his son like that" tries to comfort Scott, and then attacks a Ku Klux Klan member on the Jerry Springer show shortly after the latter made a very insulting remark towards Scott.
  • The most common word Dr. Evil uses is 'frickin'.
  • Dr. Evil’s catchphrase, “Throw me a frickin’ bone” refers to his confusion when someone speaks and he does not quite catch the concept of their words.
  • In the first film, Dr. Evil admitted to designing Vanessa Kensington's and Austin's futuristic outfits. This may indicate he has an evil forte for fashion design.
  • As cover-up/front businesses for his world domination, he's owned VirtuCon, Starbucks, and a Hollywood Talent Agency hiring famous actors, like Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney.
  • Throughout the series Dr. Evil's respect shifted from Scott to Mini-Me and then back again.
  • Dr. Evil wants nothing more than to bond with Scott.
  • Dr. Evil has a close relationship with Mr. Bigglesworth and Mini-Me.
  • In the third film, Dr. Evil reveals he has three testicles when a meteor globe hits him in the crotch, indicating he has polyorchidism. Mike Myers did not wear protection during this scene in order to get a genuine reaction. His flinching is noticeable.
  • The names of the projects and plans he comes up with are usually already taken. (ex. Preparation H, the "Death Star", The Alan Parsons Project). This shows how out of touch he is with popular culture due to having spent 30 years cryogenically frozen.
  • Dr. Evil's eye color changes in Goldmember. His eyes are a normal blue in the first two films, but are a very noticeable brighter blue in Goldmember. While the reason behind this decision is unknown, Mike Myers has stated that the contacts he wore in Goldmember were extremely uncomfortable.
  • Jim Carrey was considered for the role of Dr. Evil, but had to drop out, due to scheduling conflicts with Liar Liar.
  • Dr. Evil is a parody of the comically Evil James Bond villains. Comically exaggerating many features. This includes a cat, evil pose, face scar, evil lair, evil minions, and an overarching chair.
  • Dr Evil Soundboard

Gallery[]

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