The stakes are personal in explosive action sequel Sisu: Road to Revenge. Writer/Director Jalmari Helander (Rare Exports) is back at the helm alongside returning star Jorma Tommila as the silent antihero with a special talent for slaughtering baddies, but this time the adrenaline-pumping “more is more” energy gets offset by an unrestrained sense of humor and heart. Helander channels George Miller in his raucous Mad Max-like road thriller that gives a big, bloody middle finger to reality in favor of crowd-pleasing action carnage.
Aatami (Jorma Tommila), with his loyal pup in tow, simply wants to relocate his family house and all of its personal memories to his homeland. That’ll become a near impossible task when the KGB realizes he’s on their soil; a ruthless KGB officer (Richard Brake) releases Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang), the man who killed Aatami’s family, to finish the job and dismantle the Finnish legend for good.
Stephen Lang in SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE. Photo Credit: Lionsgate/Heikki Leis
Helander breaks Aatami’s dangerous trek across enemy terrain into multiple chapters, each title card growing progressively bloodier as the body count mounts in Aatami’s wake. It’s but one of many signs that the filmmaker is cutting loose with a more playful tone that allows for bigger action swings. Road to Revenge doesn’t skimp on any of the bone-crunching grudge matches that made the first film such a violent blast, but it’s also the type of movie that lets Aatami get creative with the tools at his disposal, whether repositioning his cargo to take on dive-bombing fighter pilots or defying physics to flip a tank. Helander doesn’t just want his audiences to pump their fists over the inspired action set pieces; he wants them cackling with glee over Aatami’s latest show of lethal innovation.
It’s that playful tone sparking just beneath the slickly directed action that defines a Sisu movie. The well-designed and choreographed action sequences impress, almost as much as the sheer variety on display. Helander employs every possible weapon at Aatami, including planes, trains, and automobiles, for body-dismembering chaos delivered with a knowing wink. It’s not just reflected in the humorously outlandish scenarios or odds that Aatami faces, but in the obvious details. Lang’s Russian accent, for example, pays tribute to the mustache-twirling villains of the ’80s, cartoonish and inconsistent.
Jorma Tommila in SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE. Photo credit: Lionsgate/Heikki Leis.
That means that Road to Revenge is less serious than Sisu and more interested in explosions and jaw-dropping stuntwork than bloodletting, though the third act does get gnarly with gruesome practical effects that’ll make you wince in sympathy pain. Helander gives his own maximalist interpretation of action cinema classics, opting for entertaining spectacle that shows over tells. Both Helander and his stoic lead demonstrate with keen awareness that you can move an audience to tears or earn their unwavering allegiance without so much as a single word of dialogue, and Aatami’s arc is particularly affecting this round.
Helander continues to have a blast with inventing wildly silly ways to dispatch bad men during World War II. Road to Revenge kicks off another high-octane road actioner, but this time, the personal stakes ramp up the energy and violence to a breathless degree. It’s the type of movie designed to be seen with a rowdy crowd, primed for the kinetically paced stunt showcase. A no frills, straightforward plot yields a bounty of splatstick action fun in a sequel that dials up the chaos with triumphant style.
Sisu: Road to Revenge made its World Premiere at Fantastic Fest and releases in theaters on November 21, 2025.
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