– by Cate Marquis –
Martin McDonagh’s WILD HORSE NINE is a funny, smart, brilliantly-written and moving story about two CIA agents, Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) taking a break from arranging a coup in Chili in 1973, on picturesque Easter Island (Rapa Nui). The older agent is becoming forgetful and losing his judgment, and their boss, played by Steve Buscemi, is becoming worried that Chris will reveal some of the big secrets he holds in his head, and is pressuring his partner Lee to deal with him.
Playwright, writer and director Martin McDonagh has made some excellent films, including THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI, IN BRUGES and THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN but this may be his best film yet. The writing is brilliant, the direction is excellent and the cast is impressive, besides John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell in the lead roles, the cast includes Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey and Tom Waits. Malkovich amazing in this mix of buddy comedy and political thriller, that is also a moving tale with a philosophical bent, and the best actor buzz has already started.
The story has some parallels to the writer/director’s first film, IN BRUGES, with a mentor-mentee pairing of an older man and younger one who are assassins hiding out in a tourist spot, Bruges. In the first film, it is the younger man who is struggling to cope with a job gone wrong, but it WILD HORSE NINE, it is the older man who struggles, dying of cancer, while his friend tries to help. John Malkovich is marvelous as Chris, the older CIA agent who is the former mentor and now friend of his partner Lee, played by Sam Rockwell. Chris is struggling with memory issues and a loss of judgment as he suffers from cancer, and Sam Rockwell’s Lee is protective of his long-time friend. They are visiting Easter Island (Rapa Nui) as a short break after their work to setting in motion a coup in Chili in 1973, which will topple the democratically elected left-wing president Allende and replace him with a brutal military dictatorship under Pinochet.
Despite it’s parallels with the earlier film, WILD HORSE NINE is more political thriller and set against a real history backdrop. The dying Chris (John Malkovich), a Catholic, is a bit worried about his immortal soul for his past deeds, although he rationalizes that they were “bad things done for a greater good” but mostly he is a wisecracking, sarcastic wit with a sharp tongue despite his failing, demented brain.
Long-time friend Lee fires back with equal power to Chris’ zingers. The banter, and all the dialog in fact, are a true joy, but with all the witty daggers flying, Lee is also protective of his talkative friend who is not only forgetting things but losing his judgment Chris is developing a tendency to forget that he can’t share everything and when to be silent, risking spilling secret information. Lee guides his friend away from blabbing while Chris flirts with a couple of pretty Chilean college students they met in the airport. Lee also covers up for Chris, hiding some of this from their CIA boss (Steve Buscemi). Even so, their boss is concerned about Chris’ talk about writing his memoirs, and presses Lee to deal with him.
The story deals evenly with the friendship between the two men and the unfolding political thriller events. The relationship between the two starts out more hilarious buddy comedy but becomes deeper and more meaningful, and moving as Chris’ decline progresses. The political side comes more to the fore later in the film, but paralleling Chris’s decline.
The name seems to have little meaning, or not anything obvious, but there is a horse in the story. The setting on Easter Island, as Chris insists on calling it, lends a strange, even surreal aspect to the film. Chris wanted to see them but his approach to them anything but reverent, calling the Moai “the heads” and seeming unimpressed. The island’s lush beauty of green landscapes and blue ocean rimming the island, contrasts with Chris and Lee’s dull brown-and-tan 1973 attire. and the landscape is filled with wild horses, whose long faces seem to echo the Moai’s stern long faces, but a bit quizical or serene rather than stern. The horses wander where they will, even up to the window of Chris’ hotel room, with Chris takes a liking to them.
WILD HORSE NINE is a remarkable film all around, from its splendid script and sharp dialog, its deep content and outstanding performances, and its atmospheric setting and photography. Funny and moving, it has much to say on the personal level, about friendship and mortality, and an equal amount on the political side and philosophical one, about unforeseen consequences, no matter how those actions might be rationalized, and an ultimate price that might be paid.
WILD HORSE NINE opens in theaters on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026.
RATING: 4 out of 4 stars






























