Toward the end of “Wild Horse Nine” — the new film from Martin McDonagh set on Easter Island in 1973 — a CIA agent, Chris (John Malkovich), offers a parting word to Monica (Mariana di Girolamo), a young Chilean student activist whom he’s befriended. “Good luck with all the democracy and stuff,” he says ruefully.

It’s a sincere but hollow sentiment. Both Chris and Monica already know that what will happen in Chile in a few months is a foregone conclusion. In fact, he’s told her about the plans that have been set in motion, thanks in large part to interference from the United States: a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet will depose socialist President Salvador Allende; activists and protesters will be rounded up and tortured, imprisoned and killed by the thousands.

Chris is on Easter Island (indigenous name: Rapa Nui) as a dying wish. He has terminal cancer, his memory fading, and he’s convinced his colleague and friend Lee (Sam Rockwell) to take him to see “the heads” — the moai, the ancient figures carved from stone that dot the island’s landscape. The only problem is that loose-lipped Chris keeps blowing their cover, telling everyone, including Monica and her friend in the airport, that they’re CIA, though no one takes them seriously.

Everyone thinks they’re joking, but this is shop talk. Through casual conversation, McDonagh skillfully weaves the true history of the United States’ nefarious communism-squashing activities over the 20th century, with wild — but plausible — claims about the CIA’s involvement in the JFK assassination, which becomes the animating force of the story’s engine.

Their boss in Santiago, MJ (Steve Buscemi), is worried that Chris is working on a memoir, in which he’ll spill details about the 1963 incident in Dallas (in fact, he is). Meanwhile Lee’s estranged wife Margie (Parker Posey) keeps calling with increasing alarm about suspicious activity at her desert home.

Situated between his films “In Bruges” and “The Banshees of Inisherin,” McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine” is a portrait of a dying CIA assassin who can’t stop confessing to his state-sanctioned crimes. Elegiac and delightfully foul-mouthed, the film is both a political thriller and a meditation on the nature of legacy, memory and what makes life worth living, anchored by a career-best performance from Malkovich, who is never better than when he’s playing a villainous but lovable rascal.

Among the moai and the wild horses of Easter Island, Chris reckons with his life’s work. He ruminates on his friendship with Lee and fractured relationship with his brother (Tom Waits). He befriends Monica, against her own instincts. He searches through his memory for the things that mattered, and finds that he wishes he had spent more time with horses, and maybe killed less people.

Malkovich imparts this all with a deeply felt soulfulness and wit, and he is as funny as he is devastating. He’s never won an Oscar, though he’s been nominated twice (over 30 years ago), and this performance is beyond deserving. He is bleak, wry and somehow sweet, the role requiring all of his idiosyncratic qualities. Chris is menacing, a man who owns the very bad things he’s done, but despite that, we root for him to find a little peace in the verdant hills among the heads and the horses.

His scene partners are terrific too. Rockwell, a McDonagh regular, never looks better than clad in ‘70s duds, and he gets to swagger and swear and stuff his face — this role is an easy layup for him. Buscemi and Posey prove to be perfect McDonagh players, delivering his blistering barbs and sensitive insights with verve. Di Girolamo, excellent in the Pablo Larraín picture “Ema,” has to represent all of Chile’s activist population, cut down in their prime, and she shoulders the responsibility with aplomb. Buscemi has a similar burden, representing the hypocrisy of America’s imperialist bullying, and he is up to the task, his MJ both repugnant and hilarious.

It’s dark and melancholy material, but “Wild Horse Nine” might be McDonagh’s most lovely picture, thanks to the lush greenery of the remote Rapa Nui, captured with loving care by his longtime cinematographer Ben Davis. The period-appropriate costumes and production design bring the entire color wheel to the frame: rusty oranges and chartreuse; yellows and reds and busy patterns. Carter Burwell’s score blends “downbeat Western” with eerie, otherworldy vocals to evoke the spiritual reflection invited by this unique place.

Good luck with all the democracy and stuff. We need that luck now, more than ever, and that message, in “Wild Horse Nine” is a warning, after the fact, a kind of poignant eulogy. But maybe there’s also a glimmer of hope in his sincerity. Chris can’t change his past, can’t reverse course in Chile in 1973, but maybe he can save Monica. Maybe one person is enough.

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'WILD HORSE NINE'

4 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for pervasive language, some strong violence, drug use and sexual references)

Running time: 1:58

How to watch: In theaters Nov. 6

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