Wild Horse Nine Review | A Clever, Fresh Spin on the Spy Genre
Wild Horse Nine introduces us to two bickering CIA agents (played by Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich) who should be enjoying their time off but have far weightier problems on their minds. Part dark comedy, part character study, it completely upends traditional espionage formulas.
by Garry Murdock
ImagIMAX
It’s 1973. Veteran CIA Agent Chris Carlisle (John Malkovich) is stuck on Easter Island with his partner Lee Chesterfield (Sam Rockwell). They’ve checked into a small motel, apparently on a mini-vacation. Lee is determined to keep a low profile while they’re there. Chris is not.
You may be thinking, “Well, they’re spies,” so they’re waiting for a phone call from their handler to send them off on a new mission. No doubt to an exotic location to find an elusive criminal, plant listening devices, seduce locals at a bar, and stage high-speed chases down cliffside roads. Maybe Chris or Lee will turn out to be a double agent and try to turn the other, before there’s a shootout.
I hate to be the one to tell you this: This is not that spy film. Not even close.
You see, Lee and Chris’s mission is over—this is the aftermath. After spending months in Santiago helping destabilize the government so the country’s military can overthrow it, they are simply waiting for news of the military coup.
IMAX
IMAX
The 1973 Chilean coup really happened, and the CIA’s involvement in it is well-documented. This film offers a fictionalized look at two agents caught in that wake.
Twenty minutes in, and I was starting to wonder how this was going to play out. The movie paints Easter Island as a decidedly gloomy place. It’s home to roughly 2,000 people but feels deserted. In this bleak landscape, we learn that Chris has a terminal condition. This means there will be no more missions. He spends a lot of time looking at the iconic Moai statues, injecting himself with morphine for the pain, or passed out in a field or in his run-down motel room. His memory is also affected, and the classified information he does remember he doesn’t seem to have a problem spilling to anyone he meets.
Case in point: at the airport, on their way to Easter Island, Lee and Chris meet Monica (Mariana di Girolamo) and Alicia (Ailín Salas)—two students on vacation. Chris asks them how they like their new “left-wing” president. When the women respond that everybody likes him, Chris counters with, “No, not everybody—that wouldn’t be true,” and that they should enjoy him while they can.
“And who the f**k are you? The CIA?” Alicia asks.
Alicia is angry, though not serious about the CIA question. Chris responds, “We are the CIA, actually. We’re totally the CIA.”
“We’re not the CIA,” Lee interjects, now nervous. “Obviously we are not the CIA.”
“Yes, we are,” Chris says. “I swear. He’s just being shy. We came down here to destabilize your democracy and it is going great.”
Flash forward to Easter Island. The phone eventually does ring in Lee’s room. Their paranoid station chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi), is furious. Somehow, he knows about their conversation with the two women in the airport. He also knows Chris is writing a tell-all memoir about his days in the agency (something that Chris has not tried to keep secret). MJ suspects that among other missions, the book will include Chris’s supposed involvement in the JFK assassination—which Lee thinks is ridiculous to the point of absurdity. Yet Lee is tasked with finding the manuscript to ensure there’s nothing in there about it or anything else that will do damage to the CIA’s reputation.
And then Lee is told to terminate Chris.
Lee’s loyalty wins out—though his attempts to protect his partner don’t go unnoticed by MJ. Adding to the complications are Monica and Alicia, whom the pair keep running into. After their rocky start at the airport, Chris attempts to become their friend, while also telling them more about his missions at the agency. This, of course, puts the women in danger from MJ—who somehow seems to know everything that is happening on the island.
IMAX
This dark comedy is written and directed by Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). One moment we’re laughing at another ridiculous interchange between the two agents, the next we are fearing for their lives.
Chris: “I’ve killed people in countries you can’t even spell.”
“Name one country you killed someone in that I can’t spell,” responds Lee.
“Czechoslovakia,” replies Chris.
“You never killed anyone in Czechoslo-f**kin-vakia,” Lee says. “You just know I can’t spell it.”
There’s a lot of industry buzz about John Malkovich deserving an Oscar nomination for his performance as Chris. And as good as he is (and he is very, very good), so is Sam Rockwell as Lee. The truth is, I don’t understand how Rockwell isn’t a household name by now. It bothers me. Galaxy Quest, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Cowboys & Aliens, Iron Man 2, Moon, and his Academy-Award winning performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri should have catapulted him to Hollywood royalty by now. And yet, even with that impressive film bio, if you point him out in a movie to somebody who doesn’t work in the industry, you’re likely to get “oh yeah, that guy” as a response rather than instant name recognition. Yes, he’s known as a character actor, but still, he deserves better.
IMAX
Rockwell captures Lee’s desperation with raw accuracy—juggling MJ’s threats, Chris’s erratic behaviour, and his own spiraling paranoia. Years in the field have taught him that nobody on this island can be trusted, leaving both the character and the audience wondering: who’s who, and what are their true intentions?
In one intense moment, a single tear rolls down Lee’s cheek as MJ orders him over the phone to terminate Chris. It’s a stellar performance that deserves Rockwell an Oscar nod too.
IMAX
IMAX
It’s scenes like this that make this film great. Sure, they’re CIA agents. But nothing about them is suave or indestructible. They don’t wear Brioni suits. They’ve never deactivated a bomb while watching a red digital counter tick down to zero. They can’t determine who an enemy is at a glance. Nor do they have any incredible gadgets like exploding pens or invisible cars at their disposal.
What they do have is feelings, because they’re portrayed as real human beings and not super spies. Chris even calls his brother Jim (Tom Waits) to say goodbye. And Lee is upset because he knows Chris doesn’t have long to live (one way or the other) and his ex-wife and kids may now be in danger. All that emotional baggage has put the duo on edge.
For such a small island, a lot happens in a short period of time. Events quickly spiral out of control, building to a level of suspense I could not have previously imagined.
The ending is tightly crafted and well executed. And although we don’t get all the answers as to what lies ahead, we leave the theatre feeling satisfied, because we suspect we know what happens next.
About the Writer
