According to a title card, the word Sisu is an untranslatable Finnish word for extreme determination, resilience, and courage. Writer/director Jalmari Helander (Rare Exports) took this term and ran with it a couple of years ago with his movie Sisu in which a Finnish soldier single-handedly slays dozens of Nazis. Well, Helander and his silent hero weren’t done. Both the director and character are back for more in Sisu: Road to Revenge.
Sisu: Road to Revenge sees one-man-army Aatami (Jorma Tommila reprising his role from the first movie) return to his home in Russian-occupied Finland after World War II. Once there, he discovers his wife and sons have been killed by the Red Army. Wanting a fresh start, he dismantles the house and packs up the lumber, intending to rebuild it in Finland.
Meanwhile, in Siberia, the commander of the regiment that killed Aatami’s family, Igor Draganov (Don’t Breathe’s Stephen Lang), is offered a deal. Kill the infamous soldier who has terrorized Russian and German forces, and he will be set free and handsomely rewarded. So, Draganov sets out to intercept Aatami on his way back to the Finnish border. But Aatami is still every bit a legendary killer, and he won’t go down easily.
With Sisu: Road to Revenge, Helander gives audiences everything they could ever want from a Sisu sequel. It’s just as bloody, gory, campy, and cartoonish as the first. The big difference is that Aatami is killing communists instead of Nazis. Which, admittedly, on a political level isn’t nearly as much fun to watch. But on a cinematic level, it’s every bit the movie Sisu was.
There’s a bit of a Mad Max: Fury Road vibe to the first half of Sisu: Road to Revenge. Aatami is basically trying to transport the components of his home back to Finland, and Draganov’s goons are in pursuit and trying to stop him. And their attempts utilize everything from motorcycles to airplanes.
That’s the “Road” part of Sisu: Road to Revenge. The “Revenge” part comes towards the second half once Aatami releases who has been stalking him and what that man did to his family. The hunter becomes the hunted, and the movie turns into a suspenseful slasher flick.
Both halves are awesome, though. Sisu: Road to Revenge knows exactly what kind of movie it is and doesn’t pretend to be anything else. It’s simply a splattery, exploitational combat movie. And that’s its biggest strength. Every kill is more brutal than the last, and the movie is absolutely gleeful in its violence. There’s a pitch-black comedy to the whole thing, like the movie is laughing along with the audience at all of this carnage.
There is one thing about Sisu: Road to Revenge that needs to be spoiled. Aatami’s faithful Bedlington Terrier returns from the first movie and lives through this one as well. So animal lovers can go into this sequel knowing that at least the dog doesn’t die. Lots of people die, but the dog lives.
There really isn’t much more to Sisu: Road to Revenge. Just an old guy killing Russians who are trying to kill him. The violence is graphic, the fights are insane, and the explosions are loud. There will be faux-intellectuals who will dismiss it as action porn, but those who liked Sisu will enjoy its sequel. It’s every bit as over-the-top, and every bit as fun.
GRADE: A
Rating: R for strong bloody violence, language, and gore
Runtime: 1 hour 28 minutes
Release Date: November 21, 2025
