Wild Horse Nine
November 6th, 2026
MOVIE: WILD HORSE NINE
STARRING: JOHN MALKOVICH, SAM ROCKWELL, STEVE BUSCEMI
DIRECTED BY: MARTIN MCDONAGH
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 3 ½ STARS (Out of 4)
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 118 MINUTES
The films of Martin McDonagh walk a fine line between bleak comedy and bittersweet optimism. I walked out of Wild Horse Nine feeling sad, yet I laughed throughout. Like his previous works, including The Banshees of Inisherin, In Bruges, and Seven Psychopaths, McDonagh’s films dissect masculinity and suggest that the London-based director is constantly wrestling with his own internal demons. Wild Horse Nine follows two CIA agents on one last trip to Easter Island, a vacation cloaked in secrecy that turns into a wild sendoff that refuses to be tamed. This is a walk into the sunset for the aging man.
The two central characters are Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell), veteran CIA agents who have been involved in political turmoil both past and present throughout the 1960s and ’70s. Their current base of operations is Santiago, Chile, where President Salvador Allende remains in power, with a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet looming on the horizon. Looking to decompress after the CIA’s presumed involvement in these events, the two men decide to take a trip to Easter Island as a swan song for Chris’s career. But, of course, there is always something secretive happening within the CIA, and even a seemingly quiet vacation cannot be trusted.
From the start, McDonagh portrays these two characters as an old married couple. They have clearly spent years working together, and both have lived enough life to become bitter about what it has to offer. Malkovich delivers the film’s standout performance as a stubborn, exhausted man who can finally be honest about who he is because his life has become too far-fetched for anyone to believe. “Yes, we are the CIA, and I hope you like your president because by September he won’t be around,” he states so glibly, like a man with nothing left to lose. Little does he know that Lee and the CIA director, MJ (Steve Buscemi, in another perfect performance), have something else cooking for the trip.
The reality is that, much like McDonagh’s other films, Wild Horse Nine is a dark comedy about men who have lived through and seen it all. There is plenty to reflect on as the camera gazes upon Easter Island’s giant stone heads with beauty and reverence while packs of horses roam peacefully across the landscape. These are men who lived through the assassination of JFK- perhaps even had something to do with it- and witnessed the rise of governments and the fall of others. We see their history in their attitudes and in their relationship, two people who desperately need a real vacation. If there is one film to claim as the Boomer generation’s cinematic representative this awards season, this is it.
Some viewers may find the humor in Wild Horse Nine crass and nihilistic, but that is precisely what audiences should expect from McDonagh’s writing. This is a bittersweet ride featuring two actors who deliver excellent performances and seem born to speak this director’s words. They are living, breathing characters shaped by the past but still wrestling with the present. There is also the thrill of political assassinations, unexpected twists, and the ever-present conversation about mortality. These are all familiar ingredients in McDonagh’s cinematic recipe, which has a way of revealing something profound about the very men we least expect. Wild Horse Nine is a thoroughbred of a movie, and McDonagh has delivered another winner.
3 ½ STARS
WILD HORSE NINE IS PLAYING IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH, 2026.
Written by: Leo Brady
