Twisters Continues A Glen Powell Trend That Started With 2003's Spy Kids 3

As far as child actor debuts, it's not quite Hailee Steinfeld in Joel and Ethan Coen's "True Grit." But now that the whole world knows full well that Glen Powell is a bona fide movie star (a fact getting slammed home with a tempestuous fury this week in "Twisters"), we can look back at his first big-screen appearance in Robert Rodriguez's 2003 film "Spy Kids 3: Game Over" and kind of see it.

Powell's big scene arrives early in the movie, when Juni (Daryl Sabata) wanders into a massive arena. It's here Juni meets the Long-fingered Boy (identified as such only in the credits), who zips the Spy Kid up to the top of a tower, throws him into a robotic suit, and informs him he'll be doing battle with a formidable combatant named Demetra (Courtney Jines). The 14-year-old Powell is plenty comfortable on screen, though the broadness of the material forces him to give one of those plucky kid-actor performances that makes parents rue the baseline quality of Hollywood family movies (which hasn't improved over the last 21 years).

If Powell seems overly eager to please, can you blame him? It's his first movie, and he doesn't want it to be his last. But there's also another explanation for his extreme pluckiness: his parents are in the movie, too. This is not a rarity for Powell. In fact, it's become a tradition.

While promoting "Twisters" on The Today Show (via The Hollywood Reporter), Powell shared a clip from the film that briefly features his parents. The moment comes during a rodeo sequence, and it's a blink-and-miss-it deal that Powell had to point out to Hoda Kotb as the clip played.

Kotb then asked Powell if his parents have appeared in any of his other movies. "They've made it in since 'Spy Kids 3,'" he said. "Yeah, literally since 'Spy Kids 3.' I think they've been in every single one."

This is surprising. Powell has been in close to 30 feature films, but he didn't really pop until the 2016 duo of Richard Linklater's "Everybody Wants Some!!!" and Theodore Melfi's "Hidden Figures." Am I to believe Powell found a way to wedge his folks into Denzel Washington's "The Great Debaters?" Ethan Hawke's "The Hottest State?" Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises," where he plays Trader #1?

I've no reason but to take the dazzingly handsome and utterly irresistible Powell at his word. If he says his parents can be glimpsed in "Ride Along 2," I believe the man. In any event, now that he's a top-of-the-marquee star, he'll be able to keep this tradition going for as long as he feels is necessary — though I do hope he stars in an adaption of Jean-Paul Satre's "No Exit" at some point to see how he squeezes them into a one-set play occupied by only three people.

"Twisters" (read /Film's review) is now playing in theaters.