Why is Wild Horse Nine called that? Martin McDonagh's answer has nothing to do with the CIA

Wild Horse Nine opened in theaters on November 6, two months after a 13-minute standing ovation at its Venice premiere, where it competed for the Golden Lion. It's Martin McDonagh's first film since The Banshees of Inisherin, it reunites him with Sam Rockwell, and it has the most code-name-sounding title of the year. Everyone assumed it meant something. McDonagh has now explained, sort of.

What Wild Horse Nine is about

The film is set in 1973 Chile, in the weeks before the September 11 coup that overthrew Salvador Allende. Two CIA agents get sent from Santiago to Easter Island, the Chilean territory better known for its stone heads:

• Chris (John Malkovich): A veteran officer with terminal brain cancer, a growing morphine habit and decades of guilt about what he's done for the agency.
• Lee (Sam Rockwell): His younger partner, who starts to worry about how erratic Chris has become.
• Monica (Mariana Di Girolamo): An activist staying at their hotel, who Chris grows attached to.
• The boss (Steve Buscemi): A CIA chief who wants Chris retired before he talks about a past assignment in Dallas.

Parker Posey plays Lee's wife, and Tom Waits has a cameo. Searchlight released the film, and McDonagh told Empire it's "definitely my most political thing."

That Dallas line is about as subtle as the film gets with its CIA history. The script also nods to the 1954 Guatemalan coup and the 1961 killing of Patrice Lumumba.

So what does the title mean?

Nothing classified. The words "wild horse nine" never appear together in the film, and there's no operation by that name. CinemaBlend's Riley Utley went into the movie assuming it was a mission code name, asked McDonagh directly and got this:

"Yeah, I've got no idea. I like numbers, and I like horses."

— Martin McDonagh, to CinemaBlend

The horses, at least, are on screen. Easter Island is home to free-roaming wild horses, and they keep turning up in the film, especially around Chris. WBUR's Sean Burns treats the horses as the film's central symbol and gives Monica a similar role.

Don't miss: Is Wild Horse Nine a true story? What's real and what's made up in Martin McDonagh's spy comedy

The McDonagh title formula

"I like numbers" is not a throwaway line from this director. Look at his filmography:

• 2008: In Bruges
• 2012: Seven Psychopaths
• 2017: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• 2022: The Banshees of Inisherin
• 2026: Wild Horse Nine

That's three numbers in five films, and the other two are named after places. Wild Horse Nine is technically both. McDonagh even described the film's origin like a sequel to his first: he told the AP that 15 years ago he went to Easter Island hoping "something similar would happen to the Bruges scenario." He made the trip, and the island gave him a movie.

Everyone heard Wild Horse Nine and pictured a redacted CIA file. McDonagh just liked the horses, and he likes his numbers.

Burns called the film "both secondhand and first-rate" for WBUR. If you see it and still think the nine has to mean something, you're welcome to keep counting. McDonagh isn't going to help.

Previously we wrote: Why does Hollywood need $150 million for a Godzilla movie when Toho does it for $15 million?