Before I walked into my screening of Wild Horse Nine, a big question I had was: Why on Earth is it called Wild Horse Nine? When I walked out of the film starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, I was still pondering that question. So, when I had the chance to interview Martin McDonagh, the writer/director of the project on the 2026 movie schedule, I asked him about the meaning behind his film’s title. I have to say, his answer is not what I expected.
Knowing that Wild Horse Nine follows two CIA agents, Malkovich’s Chris and Rockwell’s Lee, as they travel to Easter Island in the ‘70s, I figured the movie’s title could be related to their mission. I thought Wild Horse Nine could be a code for something. However, that was totally wrong, because when I asked Martin McDonagh why he gave his film this title, he told me:
Yeah, I've got no idea. I like numbers, and I like horses.
Well, there you have it, there’s really no rhyme or reason to the name. McDonagh just likes numbers and horses, and that’s all there is to it, according to him. That's certainly not what I expected to hear when I asked the question.
However, the title is by no means completely meaningless. Wild horses are important to the film, and they come up often, especially in relation to Chris’s journey. So, that part makes sense. However, the number nine is totally random…as far as I and McDonagh can tell.
This is also quite funny because many of his movies have straightforward names. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which Sam Rockwell won his Oscar for, is about just that: three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. The beloved Seven Psychopaths is about a man writing a screenplay with the same name, and it’s also about psychopaths literally. In Bruges takes place in Bruges, Belgium. And the great 2022 comedy The Banshees of Inisherin is set in the fictional Inisherin, banshees and their existence are discussed, and there is a song of the same name that’s talked about too.
At no point in Wild Horse Nine are the words said together, it’s for sure not a CIA thing, and it left me very curious about why McDonagh named it that. Personally, I love that he just did it for no big reason; he simply liked numbers and horses. From my point of view, it also just sounds really cool.
The movie is very cool, slick, funny and deeply tragic too. To me, John Malkovich gives a performance so incredible that Wild Horse Nine is bound to go down as one of his best movies. Rockwell beautifully balances him out, too, and further proves why he’s such a great fit for McDonagh’s writing – seeing as this is the third movie they’ve worked on together. Parker Posey, Steve Buscemi and Mariana di Girolamo round out the cast of this dark comedy, and like the leads, they also play out the laugh-out-loud comedy brilliantly.
So, if you are looking to see Wild Horse Nine, you can catch it in theaters on November 6. It’s one wild, funny and thought-provoking ride. However, don’t think too hard about its name, because that really doesn’t mean anything.
