Martin McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine opens wide in theaters Nov. 6 from Searchlight Pictures. The R-rated black comedy runs 1 hour, 58 minutes and reunites McDonagh with Sam Rockwell, who won an Oscar for McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It's McDonagh's first film since The Banshees of Inisherin, which earned nine Oscar nominations.
Set just before Chile's 1973 coup, the film follows CIA officers Chris (John Malkovich), a veteran with terminal cancer, and his protégé Lee (Rockwell). Bureau chief MJ (Steve Buscemi) sends them from Santiago to Easter Island. Parker Posey plays Lee's wife, Marge, and Tom Waits plays Chris's brother. Chilean actors Mariana Di Girolamo and Ailín Salas play two students Chris befriends. The film was shot on Rapa Nui and in Santiago, and was produced by Blueprint Pictures and Film4.
Wild Horse Nine premiered in competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 3, drawing a 13-minute standing ovation. Malkovich won the Volpi Cup for best actor, and the film went on to Telluride, San Sebastián and Tokyo. It holds a 93% Tomatometer score from 110 reviews and a 79 on Metacritic.
Cup of Soul's verdict: Wild Horse Nine turns a CIA errand into one of the year's best two-handers. Malkovich and Rockwell "are a double act for the ages," and Rockwell, "reliably excellent for two decades," finds "a tenderness here that feels new." The banter "is McDonagh at full strength, profane, rhythmic, and cutting, but the silences are where the film lives." Mariana Di Girolamo is remarkable in a role that deserved more room, and costume designer Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh's early-1970s wardrobe is stellar, "specific without ever tipping into parody." Read the full review.
When does Wild Horse Nine come out?
Wild Horse Nine opens in theaters nationwide Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, from Searchlight Pictures.
Is Wild Horse Nine good?
Yes. Cup of Soul calls it one of the year's best two-handers, and it holds a 93% Tomatometer score from 110 critics.
Will John Malkovich get an Oscar nomination for Wild Horse Nine?
He's a serious contender after winning Venice's top acting prize. Malkovich has two Oscar nominations, for Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, and has never won.
