New Martin McDonagh Film Set on Easter Island Stars John Malkovich as Flawed CIA Agent
The movie, released on November 6, follows a dying operative and his partner during a pre-coup Chilean visit to the remote island.
By Oliver Bennett ·
The new film Wild Horse Nine arrived in theaters on November 6, presenting a dark comedy set in the remote waters of the Pacific. Directed by Martin McDonagh, the picture shifts his usual focus from Irish coastal towns to the vast, open landscapes of Easter Island. The story centers on a dying CIA operative and his younger partner as they navigate a week-long vacation that quickly turns into a complex arrangement for an assisted death.
The narrative begins in Santiago, Chile, in 1973. John Malkovich portrays Chris Carlisle, a veteran Central Intelligence Agency agent responsible for foreign policy interventions in countries ranging from Guatemala to the Congo. Carlisle is currently preparing to destabilize the Chilean democracy before the military coup that will install Augusto Pinochet. Sam Rockwell plays Lee Chesterfield, Carlisle’s younger partner and close friend.
Carlisle suffers from terminal cancer and early-onset dementia. A steady drip of morphine has loosened his tongue, leading him to reveal secrets to two Chilean college students. He tells them, "We came down here to destabilize your democracy, and it is going great." This lapse in judgment is not typical for the character, but his deteriorating health and medication cloud his mental state.
Carlisle announces his intention to die on Easter Island, a location more than 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile. He asks Lee to arrange a quick, painless death administered by a professional and a trusted friend. Lee loves Chris but is reluctant to accept the plan. The tension is heightened by the CIA’s South American bureau chief, played by Steve Buscemi, who monitors the pair closely. Buscemi’s character views Carlisle as a growing liability.
Lee also contends with frequent phone calls from his wife, played by Parker Posey. She is described as boozy and openly unfaithful, adding to the domestic friction Lee faces while managing Carlisle’s final wishes. The plot remains relatively sparse, with little real action until the final act of the film.
McDonagh shapes the movie in the spirit of a comic Western, mirroring the wild horses that roam the island. The dialogue is slower and more drawn out than the staccato rhythms found in his previous works. There are no extreme acts of self-harm, such as the severed fingers in The Banshees of Inisherin. Instead, the film focuses on the bantering and bickering between the two men as they explore the island.
The film addresses the consequences of American military intervention. One college student corrects the men, noting that the island should be called by its Indigenous name, Rapa Nui. Chris reacts with scornful laughter, a reaction that highlights his history of overthrowing democracies with little regard for the local population. The movie uses this moment to mock character sensitivities regarding language.
The tone of the film is described as both smug and sentimental. The narrative gives Carlisle a cancer diagnosis and moments of soul-searching to encourage the audience to like him. Despite this, the film asks viewers to shed tears for a covert architect of the Pinochet dictatorship. The perspective is compared to that of an irreverent tourist wisecracking through history.
