Wild Horse Nine (2026)

-Written by Whitney Scott Bain. 

2026 AFI FEST REVIEW!

It's 1973, Santiago, Chile, right before the Pinochet coup d'état, and CIA Bureau Chief MC (an almost unrecognizable Steve Buscemi) dispatches longtime operative partners and hitmen, Chris Carlisle (John Malkovich) and Lee Chesterfield (Sam Rockwell), to Easter Island, where they bicker and confront their own dark pasts.

Chris is a devout Catholic who questions his own morals after years of working as a hitman. He is also a morphine addict. Lee, meanwhile, deals with his marital problems with his wife, Marge (Parker Posey), over the telephone. Marge has a high libido, having sex with a former clown and their divorce lawyer, but she wants Lee to come home so they can be together and raise their child. Chris also gets into an interesting bit of dialogue with his brother, Jim (Tom Waits).

At the Santiago Airport, before leaving for Easter Island, they meet two Chilean students, Monica (Marina di Girolamo) and Alicia (Ailin Salas). Chris tries to impress them by rather loudly proclaiming that their current government will soon topple, while Lee attempts to do damage control.

Upon arriving on Easter Island, they notice the wild horses that roam freely around the island. Chris and Lee check into separate rooms, with Chris staying in room nine. As they visit the Easter Island heads, the sentiment is essentially, "If you've seen one head, you've seen them all." They eventually meet up with the two students again, and Chris begins hitting on them. Later, Lee discovers that Chris has a terminal illness and wants Lee to kill him.

The banter is snappy, and the scenery is stunning, but the characters are cookie-cutter archetypes from writer-director Martin McDonagh's far-superior In Bruges. You can feel that the Lee character was written for Colin Farrell, who was unfortunately unavailable at the time. It feels like a Xerox copy in terms of characterization.

As a black comedy, there are some genuine laughs; however, it's hard to swallow the overall story.

Quick history lesson: President Allende was a communist-influenced leader, which was contrary to the United States' interests. The C.I.A. was present only as "observers," but draw your own conclusion. After a bloody assault on the La Moneda presidential palace, Allende took his own life. General Augusto Pinochet was immediately put in power, establishing a military junta that remained in control until 1990, when Chile transitioned back to civilian rule and democracy.

For the most part, if Wild Horse Nine were set in a fictitious country, with an uprising looming and the same kind of black comedy, like 1959's The Mouse That Roared, I could believe it. But I couldn't buy some of these scenes, especially when Chris is spouting off at the airport. Someone would have reported him, and Allende's secret police or some other law enforcement agency would have detained Chris and Lee, potentially leading to their deportation or even "accidental" deaths.

Written & Directed by Martin McDonagh.

Starring John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, Tom Waits, Mariana Di Girolamo, Ailin Salas, etc. 

7/10 = WATCH IT FOR FREE