56Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

Coming off of the success of Wayne’s World, Mike Myers conjured himself as a thawed-out relic of London’s swinging ’60s era, as well as a spy in the 007 mold. Myers told The Toronto Star that the idea for Austin Powers sparked in the car, when “The Look of Love” by Burt Bacharach came on the radio, and he found himself thinking about “the whole Hugh Hefner swinger thing…Just that whole jet set, Twiggy, Carnaby Street thing.” But if Austin’s archaic lingo (“shagadelic”, “smashing, baby!” et al) and lack of dentistry was one half of the comedy, the other was his take-off on a Bond villain in the bald personage of Dr. Evil. The movie’s free-wheeling spirit belied Myers’ own carefully planned writing process. “Mike Myers is incredibly methodical, with index cards and everything locked like a military campaign,” producer Michael De Luca recalled to The Hollywood Reporter.