Spy Kids: All the Time in the World is the fourth film in the Spy Kids franchise. The film was marketed as "4D", with the fourth dimension being smell. Theatergoers were given an "Aroma-scope", or a scratch-and-sniff card with instructions to use at various points in the movie.
The film starts with a pregnant Marissa Cortez Wilson (Jessica Alba) chasing down and capturing Tick Tock (Jeremy Piven). She is married to Wilbur Wilson (Joel McHale), though she doesn't reveal she's a spy. Marissa has two step-children, Cecil (Mason Cook) and Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard), and a dog named Argonaut.
A year later, Wilbur's children don't really like their stepmother. In an effort to make amends with them, Marissa gives them her necklace, which has the Chronos Sapphire. Marissa learns that Tick Tock has escaped and working for the villainous Time Keeper, who is making time speed up with his Armageddon device. Tick Tock sends his minions to retrieve the Chronos Sapphire, which is the only known element to stop his device. Cecil and Rebecca escape, aided by Argonaut — who is revealed to be a robot (voiced by Ricky Gervais) — and go to the OSS headquarters, where the kids meet Marissa's niece Carmen Cortez, who introduces them to the old Spy Kids Division. The kids find themselves in a race against time to stop Tick Tock and the Time Keeper.
Character tropes go on the Character Sheet.
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World contains examples of:
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Cecil is constantly called SAY-sil (which comes out sounding like see-saw) except by Argonaut, which pronounces it more correctly as say-SIL, even if it should be seh-SIL.
- Accidental Hero: Carmen angrily throws Juni's OSS badge into a trash can. However, by doing this, she had unknowingly saved Juni from being frozen by Danger. Juni realizes this and releases Marissa and Carmen by taking out their badges.
- Carmen: You don't deserve to wear this badge!Juni: Uh... Thanks.Carmen: You're welcome.
- And later, after they are trapped by Danger.Juni: So I realized the only way he could freeze agents was through their OSS badges. There you go. Thanks for trashing mine, Carmen.
- And I Must Scream: When Danger was young, he got in the way of an experiment which caused him to be frozen in time. No matter how hard the scientists tried, they could only leave him in that state. By the time he was freed, he'd been in that state long enough to watch the people around him, including his father, grow more feeble and eventually die. And because of it, his ambition was to go back in time just to relive that time period.
- Bait-and-Switch: During the mission briefing, Agent D’Amo ntroduces one of their top agents, “Agent Cortez”, with Carmen stepping forward to rake in the applause, before he adds “He has even come out of retirement to help us.”, at which point Juni makes his appearance.
- Battle Discretion Shot: Cecil turns off the lights before he knocks down a bunch of Mooks. All we see is his glowing gloves punching everywhere.
- Brother–Sister Team: Cecil and Rebecca are the main ones, though Carmen and Juni also get back together.
- Call-Back:
- When Rebecca and Cecil find out Marissa works for the OSS...Rebecca: Impossible... she's not cool enough.
- And when the Wilsons and Carmen are surrounded by enemy agents at the hideout...
- Wilbur discussing spy gadgets on the phone:Wilbur: Mini-cameras aren't that impressive anymore. Everyone has them in their phones...Well how small is it?...That's impossible...[beat]...There's no such thing as invisibility powder.
- When Rebecca and Cecil find out Marissa works for the OSS...
- Cassandra Truth: Cecil and Rebecca try to warn Marissa that Danger is the Time Keeper while she went to the same watch shop with Carmen and Juni, her niece and nephew. She doesn't believe them and hangs up on them. Lampshaded by Marissa shortly after Danger reveals himself to and freezes the trio.Marissa: Agent Wilson.Rebecca: Turn around!Cecil: It's a trap!Rebecca: The Time Keeper is Danger!Cecil: That's his secret identity!Marissa: Look, I don't have time for your pranks right now. OK? Watch Argonaut watch the baby. Thank you.
- And then, after a scene cut.
Juni: The Armageddon device. It's tiny. [the device vanishes and the Time Keeper is heard laughing]Time Keeper: If time's the test, family is best.Carmen: It's a trap.Time Keeper: Hello, agents. You're right on time. [takes off the mask, revealing himself to be Danger]Marissa: The kids were right.Danger D'Amo: [deep voice] I guess I'm not...[then changes to normal voice] who you thought I was. - Clockworks Area: The Timekeeper's hideout has an element of this, as well as the spherical dome holding the Armageddon device underneath the OSS building.
- Demoted to Extra/The Cameo: Machete Cortez (Danny Trejo) appears briefly as one of the frozen agents at OSS headquarters. Also — ahem — a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
- Desperate Object Catch: Marissa, spying on the baddies in the warehouse, catches a fallen baby bottle on her foot to prevent it from making noise when it strikes the floor.
- Distant Sequel: The film takes place quite a few years after the previous film.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: Wilbur tells Cecil the important part of being a Spy Hunter is lifting an eyebrow.Wilbur: Here's the important part. Lift the eyebrow. Respect the golden arch. That's my secret.
- Foreshadowing: The Time Keeper's introduction video has him telling the world they are guilty of wasting time by spending their days with meaningless pursuits instead of treasuring moments with their loved ones. That line of dialogue can hint the Time Keeper's motive for stealing time.
- Format-Specific Joke: The Aroma-scope elements of the movie only work with a card, though that might not be a bad thing considering their poor reception.
- Fun with Acronyms: The Telematic Organism Oscillation Transporter...TOOT.
- Funny Background Event: Tick Tock yelling at his agents after Baby Spy accosts him with unexpected crop dusting.
- Generation Xerox: Cecil and Rebecca's story closely mirrors that of Juni and Carmen in the first Spy Kids movie.
- Hand Wave: Wilbur appearing to arrest Tick Tock at the end after somehow knowing where his wife and children were.Rebecca: How'd you find us?
Wilbur: I'm Wilbur Wilson. Your father. - Held Gaze: Wilbur and Marissa Wilson have two between them, one right before The Big Damn Kiss at the end.
- Hurricane of Puns: Lots of time-related puns.
- Insistent Terminology: Cecil and Rebecca are not Marissa's kids. They are her stepkids.
- I Work Alone: Juni works alone for seven years. He eventually admits he did this because he felt it would be "uncool" to always keep working with his sister, so he struck out on his own, but ended up striking out instead.
- Just a Kid: Rebecca and Cecil are instructed to stay behind with Argonaut and Spy-Baby as the rest of the OSS infiltrates The Timekeeper's hideout. They understandably mistake it for being grounded.
- Kirk Summation: Rebecca and Cecil give one to the Time Keeper to convince him that his plans to travel back in time are only wreaking havoc on all the time in the world.
- Maternity Crisis: Marissa goes into labor while she's chasing down Tick Tock, though she fights through it.
- Mole in Charge: The new OSS head, Danger D’Amo, turns out to be the Timekeeper.
- My Future Self and Me: The Timekeeper’s minions turn out to be future versions of him that have attempted the same plan and failed.
- Put on a Prison Bus: Tick Tock is put in handcuffs by Wilbur and promptly arrested (again) by the OSS shortly after Danger deactivates the Armageddon device.
- Quicksand Sucks: Marissa, Carmen, and Juni would've been smothered in The Time Keeper's special hourglass sands had Carmen not had her atomic lipstick on hand.
- Reaching Through the Fourth Wall: Attempted this by giving each theatergoer a scratch-and-sniff card, with instructions to scratch a certain number or symbol on the card when it appeared in the film.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Wilbur sabotages his own show (and career) when he realises that his family will suffer for it.
- Significant Anagram: Several, since Cecil has a talent for spotting them. A coded message is an anagram for the villain's hideout; the clock branded "Ale Trove" is an elevator, and Danger D'Amo is an anagram for "Armageddon".
- Spanner in the Works: Great job tossing your brother's tag in the trash, Carmen. You just single-handedly saved the world from the Armageddon device.
- Third Is 3D: Taken a step further to Fourth Is 4D, with the added dimension being smell.
- Time-Freeze Trolling Spree: Juni finds a way to unfreeze the OSS agents, but before he unfreezes Carmen he positions her hand so she's picking her nose.
- Time Is Dangerous: The Time Keeper speeds up time, and the heroes are worried that there will be no time left. The Big Bad ultimately just wants to go back in time to save his father, but he just keeps creating clones of himself and things get worse.
- Title Drop:
- Wilbur tells his kids that if his show does well he'll have "all the time in the world" to spend with them.
- The Time Keeper tells Cecil and Rebecca that the think they have "all the time in the world".
- Toilet Humor: The movie has quite a few fart and poop gags, courtesy of the Spy Baby and Argonaut.
- Tron Lines: Cecil's gloves glow, so when he turns off the lights they're the only thing we can see.
- Visual Pun: During the transportation sequence, Rebecca's face temporarily gets placed on Cecil's rear end. Rebecca says something stinks and Cecil says he always knew she was a "butt-head".
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The Timekeeper steps out of the frame after disabling the Armageddon device and is never seen again.
