When writer-director Robert Rodriguez got down to make a brand new Spy Children film, he went to bounce concepts round with some very trusted collaborators: his children.
“They’d an entire record of issues: It’s important to have a safehouse. […] And it’s important to deliver a online game aspect again,” says Rodriguez.
Rodriguez took each notes for Netflix’s Spy Children: Armageddon, wherein he integrates video video games immediately into the spy story. He made the identical transfer in 2003’s Spy Children 3-D: Recreation Over, which he remembers fondly as “the largest of the Spy Children motion pictures.” However it’s been 20 years since Recreation Over, which implies he needed to deal with video video games in a 2023 means.
That goes past the fundamentals of the plot: This time round, the online game leaks into the true world earlier than the youngsters enter the sport. And whereas Recreation Over’s undercover agent Juni Cortez struggled to get his bearings within the online game world, Armageddon’s new spies grew up in a world stuffed with gaming and expertise, so that they know what they’re doing — extra so than the adults.
“My son got here up with a solution to do it that made sense with at the moment’s recreation worlds, the place the youngsters could be tremendous savvy,” Rodriguez explains. “It offers the film a sensible type of slant.”
And don’t assume Rodriguez’s son, Racer Max, isn’t getting his due; not like on Recreation Over, he’s a credited co-writer on the brand new film.
In Spy Children: Armageddon, a Commonplace-Challenge Villain unleashes a code that turns every bit of expertise right into a online game stage. Easy acts like unlocking a smartphone or withdrawing cash from an ATM now contain gaming mechanics. Which means Tony and Patty, the film’s gaming-enthusiast younger heroes, are completely primed to help the grownup secret brokers.
“The youngsters would be higher than their dad and mom, if that’s the one means you might use expertise,” says Rodriguez. “The dad and mom could be misplaced, the youngsters could be like trendy spies. And they’d have an opportunity towards the unhealthy man.”
One other aspect of at the moment’s children that might give them an edge towards a recreation developer villain?
“My children know the way each online game creator created their recreation,” explains Rodriguez. “They go into the entire historical past of this particular person. So [Patty and Tony] would know this unhealthy man just like the again of their hand, know the way he thinks, and know his recreation idea already. In order that was actually enjoyable about doing that for this movie: It really gave them a plausible edge towards the villain.”
Spy Children: Armageddon is presently streaming on Netflix.