A well-reviewed dark comedy about two CIA agents with an unusual preoccupation with sin and the cross, but nearly 120 f-words, bloody violence, heroin use, crude sexual dialogue and a murky spiritual message keep it at the floor.
Wild Horse Nine is a dark comedy written and directed by Martin McDonagh, the filmmaker behind In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin. Searchlight Pictures opened it on November 6, 2026. It is rated R for pervasive language, some strong violence, drug use and sexual references, runs 1 hour 58 minutes, and has a Metascore of 78 from 40 reviews on Metacritic. John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell star as Chris and Lee, CIA agents stationed in Santiago, Chile in early 1973, months before the coup that brought down President Salvador Allende, who take a trip to Easter Island, called Rapa Nui. Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, Tom Waits, Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas also appear, and ReelViews reports that Malkovich won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for his performance.
The film follows two friends and colleagues, and one of them, Chris, is battling an illness that affects his mind and his discretion, which makes him as much a liability to the Agency as an asset. RogerEbert.com calls it, like most of McDonagh's work, a film about male friendship, and Deep Focus Review describes a story that seems light and airy until it is not. We have kept this guide free of plot spoilers beyond what the parent-guide reviewers say outright.
Plugged In rates the film's content Heavy for kids, tweens, teens and adults, and says this horse will buck discerning viewers with its spats of bloody violence, torrents of harsh language, drug use, sexual dialogue and opaque spiritual messages. It also calls the film thoughtful, clever and darkly funny and says it plumbs deeper spiritual depths than you might expect. Common Sense Media recommends it for ages 16 and up, citing constant extremely strong language, guns and shooting with blood spurts, sex-related dialogue and drug references, and says the movie explores friendship, mortality and the possibility of personal change.
Language is the heaviest concern. Plugged In counts nearly 120 f-words, one preceded by mother, nearly 30 s-words, three uses of the c-word, God's name misused three times (twice with the word damn) and Jesus's name abused nine times, along with a long list of other vulgarities and two uses of a slur for the intellectually disabled. Violence includes people shot and killed with blood flying, several shot in the head (one shown up close), a woman killed with a car, hostages held at gunpoint, a family kidnapped and threatened, detailed talk of assassination, a discussion of suicide, and a character who pretends to shoot himself in the head. A horse dies offscreen and its body is seen in a few scenes.
Sexual content is mostly dialogue. A character's wife openly admits to sleeping with multiple men and one woman, and there are hints that her husband strays as well. Chris makes crude jokes about the women he would date, flirts with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter without the relationship turning romantic, and a character claims a link between how gay a country is and the quality of its cheese. A man appears in his underwear and a woman in a revealing swimsuit, and there is no nudity. Drug content includes a sick man medicating with morphine and calling it wonderful, a character injecting heroin on screen, characters described as junkies and dopeheads, and constant smoking and drinking.
This is where the film surprised Plugged In, and it needs careful treatment. Chris is Catholic. As he senses his life coming to a close he becomes introspective about the terrible things he has done, including killing people, and wonders whether he will make it to heaven. He and Lee speculate about whether moths or dinosaurs will be there and whether a Nazi could get in, and a man dismisses suicide because he does not want to go to hell at the last minute. Characters repeatedly justify the CIA's killing as a terrible thing done for the greater good. Near the end, Plugged In says, that phrase is set against an image of Christ on the cross, which could be read as saying that self-sacrifice is the only truly just means of doing such a thing. It adds that the meaning is left open to interpretation.
The film is not friendly to institutional religion. Chris sits in a Mass in which a priest speaks against Allende, which angers the young people in the pews and positions the faith as opposed to the will of the people. A large crucifix hangs in the church, a Bible and crucifixes appear, and a cross hangs from a car's rearview mirror. We count the abuse of Jesus's name under profanity and not as mockery of Jesus himself, and we do not treat the film's Catholic imagery as an endorsement, because its meaning is ambiguous.
Plugged In says Lee and Chris share a genuine bond and would do almost anything for each other, in touching ways. Chris befriends a young Chilean woman and tries to prepare her for the troubles his employer helped cause, Lee does what he can to protect his wife and children when they are in danger, and someone attempts to make amends with an estranged family member. The film also puts a spotlight on the CIA's presumed misdeeds in other countries, and Chris admits he has always lied for his job and would like to stop. Common Sense adds that it is hard to consider the main characters role models, but that the film explores friendship, mortality and the possibility of personal change.
The film's recurring phrase, a terrible thing done for the greater good, is exactly what Romans 3:8 rejects, calling it slander to say we should do evil that good may result. Proverbs 14:12 warns that there is a way that seems right to a man but its end is death, which fits the justifications Chris and Lee give. Chris's anxiety about heaven meets the promise of Luke 23:39-43, where a dying criminal asks Jesus to remember him and is promised paradise that day, and the sober reminder of Hebrews 9:27 that people are appointed to die once and then face judgment. The film's late image of Christ on the cross touches 1 Peter 3:18, which says that Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.
That is a more hopeful answer than the one the film openly gives, and it is a good reason to watch with a conversation in mind and not as entertainment. The film's language and sexual talk run against Ephesians 5:3-4, which calls for no coarse joking among believers. Parents and viewers should weigh how much of that they want to take in for the sake of the film's reflections.
Wild Horse Nine scores 1/100, Avoid. It is a well-reviewed, thoughtful film with a moving friendship at its center and an unusual preoccupation with sin, death and the cross, and it also carries pervasive profanity, bloody violence, heroin use, crude sexual dialogue and a murky spiritual message, which Plugged In rates Heavy for every age group. The score is at the floor under almost every reading we tested. It is not for children or teens, and for adults it is a matter of conscience that depends on how much of its language and violence a viewer can take in.
For other R-rated films we have reviewed, see our guides to You Can See Everything and The Boys. Our Christian movie reviews hub and Christian discernment guide explain how we weigh films, and our rating system guide explains the scale. Also new on November 6, see Godzilla Minus Zero and The Cat in the Hat. For the full parent guides, read Plugged In's review and Common Sense Media's review.