Wild Horse Nine (2026) Super Review: John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell Make Martin McDonagh’s Spy Comedy Sing

Two American spies stand in the long grass of Easter Island, dwarfed by stone giants that have watched empires come and go. One of them is running out of time, the other is running out of patience, and somewhere back on the mainland a coup is waiting for its cue. It sounds like the set-up for a joke, and in Martin McDonagh’s hands it partly is. But as so often with the writer-director of In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin, the laughter has a lump in its throat.

Wild Horse Nine, which played in competition at Venice and at the BFI London Film Festival, opens in UK cinemas today, Wednesday 4 November. It is a sour, funny and surprisingly tender buddy film built around a towering John Malkovich performance. It is also McDonagh working very much in his comfort zone, and that cuts both ways.

John Malkovich hasn’t been this alive on screen in years, and he’s playing a man who is quietly saying goodbye.

Movie at a Glance

• UK release: In UK cinemas from Wednesday 4 November 2026 (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures UK)
• US release: In cinemas from Friday 6 November 2026 (Searchlight Pictures)
• Director and writer: Martin McDonagh
• Starring: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Mariana Di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, Tom Waits and Parker Posey
• Certificate: 15 (very strong language, strong violence, drug misuse)
• Runtime: 117 minutes
• Genre: Dark comedy, spy drama

Two Spies on a Very Strange Holiday

It is 1973, and Chris (Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) are long-serving CIA men stationed in Santiago, where Salvador Allende’s socialist government is living on borrowed time. Chris is old, unwell and increasingly indiscreet, and he has started recording his memoirs. When he announces a week’s trip to Easter Island, Lee goes too, partly as a friend and partly as a minder. Back in Santiago, their irritable bureau chief MJ (Steve Buscemi) watches nervously, while two young Chilean students (Mariana Di Girolamo and Ailín Salas) cross their path on the island and start asking awkward questions.

That is about as much as you need to know. McDonagh is far more interested in conversation than in espionage, and much of the film is two men bickering in hotel rooms, bars and fields full of statues while history gathers on the horizon.

Malkovich at His Best

This is Malkovich’s first film with McDonagh, and the match feels long overdue. The writer’s salty, rhythmic dialogue suits that famously languid delivery, and Malkovich finds both the comedy and the sadness in a man who has spent a lifetime doing terrible things for his country and is now too tired to pretend otherwise. He is funny when Chris is being outrageous, and quietly devastating when he isn’t. After years of being wasted on generic villains, it is a joy to see him given a part this rich.

Rockwell, back with McDonagh after Seven Psychopaths and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is the perfect partner. Lee is the straight man, more or less, and Rockwell plays him with a lovely mix of exasperation and loyalty. Their back-and-forth has the easy, lived-in feel of a very old double act. Buscemi makes a sharp, sour impression as their boss, and Parker Posey has fun in a small role as Lee’s wife, though she doesn’t get much to do.

Familiar Ground, Darker Edges

If you have seen In Bruges, the shape of this film will feel very familiar: two killers marooned somewhere picturesque, a friendship tested by secrets, and a story that swings between jokes and gunfire. McDonagh does this better than almost anyone, but Wild Horse Nine rarely surprises. Its ironies and reversals tend to land where you expect, and the sudden flashes of violence can feel more like a habit than a necessity.

The film also wants to say something about American meddling abroad and about a generation of powerful men that is passing. Some of that bites, particularly when Chris drops the jokes and speaks frankly to the young people he meets. Elsewhere, the provocations are more about getting a reaction than making a point, and the political material never quite gets the attention the central friendship does. The women in the story are mostly kept to the edges, and the tone shifts between comedy and grief are not always smooth.

Big Skies and Big Heads

Ben Davis’s photography makes the most of Easter Island, with its huge skies, golden light and the moai standing silent over the action. The statues become a running joke and a quiet symbol at the same time: ancient, enduring and completely unimpressed by the men scuttling around them. Beyond the scenery, McDonagh’s filmmaking is fairly plain, letting the actors and the words do the work, with his regular composer Carter Burwell back on music duties.

By the end, what stays with you is less the plot than the friendship, and the sense of two dinosaurs realising the world is moving on without them. It is not top-tier McDonagh, but it is warm, sharp and often very funny, and Malkovich alone makes it worth the trip.

Watch the Official Trailer

Join Chris and Lee on Easter Island in the official UK trailer.

Where does Wild Horse Nine rank for you among Martin McDonagh’s films? Share your spoiler-free reaction below.