Glen Powell's Breakout Role Came In A Sylvester Stallone Movie

The path to becoming a contemporary movie star isn't as straightforward as it once was. But then comes along an actor like Glen Powell, who carries such a magnetic personality that it's no wonder he's become a marquee name. The big screen charmer knows his way around a good joke in comedies like "Everybody Wants Some!!", "Anyone But You," and "Hit Man." I'm also partial to the underrated "Set It Up." At the same time, Powell has been able to transfer that sly charm over to the world of action movies with blockbuster tentpoles like "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Twisters." With Powell starring in Edgar Wright's adaptation of Stephen King's "The Running Man," it's important to remember that it took time for him to cultivate his star power.

It's always fun to see people discover Powell as a stock trader who draws the attention of Tom Hardy's Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises." Just two years after his brief stint in the Christopher Nolan superhero epic, however, the future action prospect was given the opportunity to star among some of the most recognizable action heroes ever in 2014's "The Expendables 3." It's not every day you're standing alongside the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, and Jason Statham, even if the movie itself is kind of dreadful.

The third installment of the action star ensemble sees mercenary Barney Ross (Stallone) bringing in a crop of younger talent to help out the dinosaurs after an old adversary (Mel Gibson) rears his ugly head. Among them is Powell as Thorn, a thrill-seeking climber who also happens to be an excellent hacker. While his screentime is pretty minimal, it's easy to see how Powell rose to prominence.

The funny thing about Powell as one of the new faces within the "Expendables" crew lies within how brightly he shines among the new blood. Here he joins the fresh crop of "exciting" new action stars like (*checks notes*) Ronda Rousey, Victor Ortiz, and Kellan Lutz. It's comical how much he stands out above those co-stars, even if he's given lines like "I'm gonna come right out and say it, I belong on you" while scaling a mountain. Everyone seems to casually nod to one another's previous movies in the "Expendables" series, and Powell's introduction is no different. "I can do that," says Stallone's Ross, referencing his Renny Harlin-directed action movie "Cliffhanger."

Powell's presence in the action sequel came about because he wrote the "Rambo" star a letter about how he had spent his childhood trying to find new ways to cheat death (via GQ). Ironically enough, that seems like the perfect thing you'd want to hear when casting your new batch of death-defying mercs. If only Powell knew what he would be doing a few years later while prepping for his flying stunts in "Maverick." While "Expendables 3" gave Powell an opportunity to be in a blockbuster action movie with Stallone, the two had actually starred in the same movie a decade prior – kind of.

"Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" was such a weird kid's movie when it came out in 2003, yet its cartoony imagination comes across as kind of endearing over two decades later. It's another one of Robert Rodriguez's kid empowerment fantasies that feels like a mashup of "Tron" and "Ready Player One." The cameo that most people talk about is a post-"Lord of the Rings" Elijah Wood as a master gamer who hilariously loses all of his 99 lives within a minute. But long before that, you'll see a fresh-faced Powell making his feature film debut as a character credited as "Long-Fingered Boy." He's the Grandmaster of the Arena of Misfortune who instructs Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) that he has to fight an opponent in his mech suit in order to move onto the next level. 

As for Stallone, he plays the villain known as "The Toymaker," a rogue OSS agent who created a virtual reality video game called "Game Over" after being imprisoned in cyberspace. Juni is sent in to shut down the game before the Toymaker can use it to gain mind control over the many children signing up to play it. Stallone is hamming it up big time and seems to be having a lot of fun doing so. He also does the Ernest thing of playing a whole bunch of weird and wacky side characters that all converse with one another.

Powell and Stallone don't share any scenes, but it is funny how they would come to work together later down the line, albeit in an arguably worse movie. I wonder if they ever spoke about it on set...

"The Expendables 3" is currently streaming on Peacock.