Wild Horse Nine takes place shortly before the military coup that overthrew Chile’s elected president Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973. That coup brought a military junta to power and began the dictatorship associated with Augusto Pinochet, which lasted until 1990. For a story about CIA agents operating in Chile, the date carries an immediate charge. American efforts to undermine Allende were already well underway.

Martin McDonagh places Chris, played by John Malkovich, and Lee, played by Sam Rockwell, inside that charged moment. Their bureau chief MJ, played by Steve Buscemi, dispatches them from Santiago to Easter Island shortly before the takeover. That is the film’s starting point, according to its official synopsis.

That is where the setting gets uncomfortable, and interesting.

Why Allende’s Presidency Mattered So Much

Salvador Allende came to power in 1970 through Chile’s electoral system. A Marxist leading the Popular Unity coalition, he pursued a route to socialism through existing democratic institutions. His government expanded state control over the economy and nationalised major industries, including copper.

During the Cold War, that combination alarmed Washington. An elected socialist government offered a politically awkward example for the United States, especially if it could survive and succeed. American business interests also had money at stake in Chile’s economy.

Inside Chile, the conflict had its own momentum. Allende had passionate supporters and determined opponents. Economic disruption and shortages made daily life harder. Political hostility intensified, while disputes over constitutional authority pushed institutions further apart. By 1973, strikes and confrontation had become part of the country’s daily experience.

It helps to keep those Chilean struggles in view. Looking at the country entirely through American spies can make Chileans seem like supporting players in their own history. Their competing hopes and fears existed before Chris and Lee entered the picture.

What the CIA Was Doing in Chile

The American intervention is documented. In September 1970, President Richard Nixon instructed the CIA to pursue a military coup that would prevent Allende from taking office. After Allende’s inauguration, the administration continued working to undermine his government. Declassified records establish the deliberate nature of that policy.

Covert support went to opposition political forces and media. The CIA helped sustain an environment in which Allende’s enemies had additional resources to resist him. The Senate investigation into American intelligence activities later examined this spending and the agency’s efforts to influence Chilean politics.

There is an important distinction between those operations and the specific military takeover of September 1973. The record supports American destabilisation and knowledge of coup plotting. Claims about direct operational control of the final coup require greater precision. The CIA’s retrospective account acknowledged contacts with plotters and an attitude that probably appeared to condone their plans, while distinguishing that involvement from instigating the September takeover.

For Wild Horse Nine, that history gives the agents’ job titles weight before either man says a word.

A CIA officer in Chile in 1973 belongs to an organisation actively involved in the country’s political future. Any reading of these characters has to make room for that institutional baggage, however funny or personally damaged they may be.

The Date Puts a Deadline Over Everything

On September 11, Chile’s armed forces moved against the government. Allende remained at La Moneda, the presidential palace, and refused to resign. The palace came under attack, including aerial bombardment. He died by suicide during the coup.

The junta subsequently dissolved Congress and suppressed political opposition. Pinochet consolidated his authority over a dictatorship that governed until 1990. Detention, torture and forced disappearance became instruments of repression. Thousands were killed or disappeared, and many Chileans fled into exile.

That knowledge puts pressure on the phrase “shortly before.”

For an audience familiar with the date, the disaster is already approaching. An argument between colleagues or a private grievance unfolds beside a future that will consume far more lives than theirs.

This is the dramatic potential of the setting. The characters can be absorbed in themselves while the viewer keeps thinking about what is coming. Their concerns may be recognisably human and painfully small at the same time.

Easter Island Has a History of Its Own

The move from Santiago to Easter Island also deserves attention. Rapa Nui is a Polynesian island incorporated into Chile in 1888, with its own Indigenous people and cultural history. Its relationship with the mainland brings another history of power into the story.

Treating it simply as a remote place where two Americans can sort themselves out would flatten that history considerably.

My reading of the premise is that the journey creates an uneasy kind of distance. Chris and Lee move away from the capital at a decisive moment. They remain within a country whose political life their government has helped destabilise.

Why the History Changes the Humour

A dark comedy built around American operatives in this setting asks the audience to hold several feelings at once. You can enjoy an actor’s delivery. You can recognise a character’s loneliness. You can also remember the machinery supporting his presence there.

For me, that is the most useful way into Wild Horse Nine. Keep the historical scale in mind while watching the individual men.

Personal vulnerability can make an agent more understandable. It can also draw attention away from the people affected by his work. A bruised ego is easy to dramatise. The political consequences of a covert operation spread across households and years.

Chris and Lee may be preoccupied with whether they can trust each other. The history leaves a larger question hanging over their assignment. What does their idea of trust offer the people whose country they have been sent to work in?