Robert Rodriguez Opens Up About Working with Son Racer on 'Spy Kids': 'Most Valued Collaborator' (Exclusive)

The 'Spy Kids: Armageddon' director collaborated with his 26-year-old son to write the script for the latest film in the franchise

Robert Rodriguez found inspiration at home for his work on the Spy Kids films.

Ahead of the release of the newest Spy Kids film, the Spy Kids: Armageddon director, 55, chatted with PEOPLE exclusively about making the reboot and how his own kids influenced his project.

For the fifth film, Rodriguez was able to collaborate with his 26-year-old son Racer on the script.

"Racer and my other kids were the original audience for the early films, so they had very strong opinions on what needed to be included in this film to make it the ultimate Spy Kids movie," he tells PEOPLE of writing the Spy Kids: Armageddon script.

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Related: 'Spy Kids: Armageddon' Introduces New Generation of Spies in First Look at Netflix Reboot (Exclusive)

"Racer came up with a lot, the new family, the whole Nemesis being a game designer, that the game would lock people out of their technology. He and my kids even fully created a working game within the movie called Hyskor on their own."

"Racer is my most valued collaborator, he knows what I like having worked together since he could crawl, so our ideas mesh well," Rodriguez sweetly adds. "And he's so hard-working, he runs circles around me just like he did as a kid. I named him appropriately."

Although he's a lot older now, Racer was just a kid when the original Spy Kids movies were being made. His father chatted about working with the two main child actors — Daryl Sabara and Alexa PenaVega — and how it helped him parent his own kids.

Speaking of working on the films, he says it "really taught me to be a more effective parent."

Related: Alexa PenaVega Says Her Kids 'Don't Like' 'Spy Kids', Think She 'Should Have Been Lavagirl'

Rodriguez is dad to Racer, Rocket, 27, Rebel, 24, Rogue, 19 and Rhiannon, 18, who he shares with ex-wife Elizabeth Avellán.

"I saw how Daryl and Alexa were stepping up to all the incredible challenges I'd throw at them every day making those complex action films, and it made me realize that I needed to challenge my own children that much," he tells PEOPLE.

"Because I saw how Daryl and Alexa were transformed by the experience and they'd turn into super kids. And now they're super parents!"

Since the final film premiered in 2011, Rodriguez and the rest of the cast have managed to keep in contact. "We've all gotten to work together more over the years and stay in touch, it boggles my mind that Daryl and Alexa are parents," he says.

"Both have really cool kids and [they] themselves are really terrific parents. While seeing my own kids are so grown now after being in those movies as well, it all flew by in the blink of an eye."

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