John Malkovich is one of the rare actors who can rescue a weak script. Thankfully, Wild Horse Nine provides the two-time Oscar nominee with more than just a basic outline, handing him exquisite dialogue and a juicy character to embrace. With Malkovich and his perfect counterweight Sam Rockwell, writer/director Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin, In Bruges) has found the ideal actors to embody two intricately layered characters.
Malkovich fully channels his signature brand of weirdness, his unique delivery adding entertaining punctuation to each line. In his first collaboration with McDonagh, Malkovich takes on the role of Chris Carlisle, a seasoned and cynical CIA agent who may have had a hand in JFK’s assassination. He talks about all the people he’s killed in his line of work as if they were just bullet points on a checklist, each one briskly eliminated and dismissed.
His partner and only friend, Lee Chesterfield (Rockwell), knows Chris is dealing with the final stages of a medical condition that’s eating away at his memory. And while that’s central to McDonagh’s story, it’s their biting banter and the underlying, hard-earned respect between the strange pair that are the key to understanding who these guys really are outside of the agency. Lee’s a stone-cold killer but, grudgingly, holds a warm spot in his cynical heart for Chris.
Moving on from their lengthy assignment to destabilize Chile, the partners are sent to Easter Island by CIA chief MJ (Steve Buscemi). Chris wants nothing more than to see the giant heads, but Lee’s there for a more nefarious reason. (Spelling out what he’s up to would spoil the twist.) Unlike their previous assignments, their time on Easter Island is much more about reminiscing and self-discovery than tearing down governments or knocking off political enemies.
There’s a genuinely lived-in feel to Chris and Lee’s conversations, and their bickering echoes old married couples. As Chris works on his memoirs and attempts to recall key moments from his life, he peppers Lee with questions about moths and opines that countries can be judged on their gayness by the cheese they produce, and somehow dinosaurs enter his memoir, too. Why? Only Chris understands the connection. And his unexpected love for wild horses is endearing, humanizing a man who made a career of destroying regimes.
John Malkovich is clearly relishing every syllable, delivering lines that only he could make both menacing and weirdly lovable, and Sam Rockwell gives back as good as he gets. Rockwell keeps Lee from slipping into CIA agent trope territory. He’s prickly and impatient, but there’s a worn-down warmth that seeps in around the edges.
Steve Buscemi acts as the ideal pot-stirrer, his perpetual exasperation as MJ injecting just enough bureaucratic nonsense and interference to keep things lively.
Wild Horse Nine drifts into a buddy road trip vibe but keeps dodging every obvious turn, peeling back new layers and never becomes predictable or overly sentimental. Every time you think it’s about to go soft, Malkovich’s Chris says something outlandish that changes things up.
On paper, Wild Horse Nine is about a pair of spies on what’s meant to be their final assignment as a team. But that premise is just the outer shell. McDonagh turns what sounded like a standard spy outing into a story about two men with a lot of shared history and unfinished business, trying and occasionally succeeding at making peace with the lives they’ve led. It’s a clever buddy story that feels less like a formula and more like an honest accounting of two broken lives.
GRADE: A
Rating: R for sexual references, pervasive language, drug use, and some strong violence
Runtime: 1 hour 58 minutes
Release Date: November 6, 2026
Studio: Searchlight Pictures
Cast: Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, Tom Waits, Mariana Di Girolamo, and Ailin Salas
