The man from the first Sisu who just refuses to stay dead is back, and yes, the sequel is exactly as rowdy as you want it to be. I caught Sisu: Road to Revenge at BeyondFest in LA, and the crowd got the full buffet: grim history, gnarly gags, and a surprisingly tender core nobody expects from a franchise that once gave us the infamous human snorkel kill.
The setup: 1946, two years after the first bloodbath
The war is over, but the mess it left behind is very much alive. Russia has carved off big chunks of Finland, and the Red Army polices the new border like a vise. Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) tries to go home and finds out his land is now on the Soviet side. Bad luck for him, much worse for anyone who gets in his way.
Wandering the ashes of his house, he pieces together the life he lost: a photo of his family, the notches on the wall where he tracked his son’s height, and the memory of the man who took it all from him. That would be Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang), a sadistic Soviet commander whose earlier massacre lit the fuse on Korpi’s legend. In one of the film’s quiet stunners, Korpi dismantles his ruined home plank by plank, determined to haul the wood back across the border and rebuild. It is both a mission and a scar, and the movie treats that stack of lumber like the beating heart of the story.
The other side of the hunt
Meanwhile, Draganov is rotting in a Serbian prison until his former superior, a Red Army general played with icy relish by Richard Brake, shows up with news: the monster they made is back. The leash comes off, and Draganov barrels out to finish what he started. From there, it becomes a blood-slicked cat-and-mouse chase.
Who is doing what here
- Jorma Tommila is Aatami Korpi, aka Koschei the Immortal: a Finnish Terminator filtered through Chaplin, saying almost nothing and telling you everything with posture and pain. There’s a rare, small crack in the armor this time that actually draws a gasp.
- Stephen Lang is Igor Draganov: a cackling storm of spite in a Soviet uniform. His Russian dips into Saturday-morning-cartoon territory now and then, but weirdly, it plays. Most of the film’s jet-black punchlines are his.
- Richard Brake shows up as a Red Army general: the minute he opens his mouth you know the temperature just dropped. Typecasting used like a weapon.
- Jalmari Helander directs: steady hand, wicked timing, and a knack for making you care about splintered wood more than most movies make you care about people.
So, does it bring the pain?
The first Sisu set a high bar for creative slaughter. Road to Revenge doesn’t blink. The kills are bigger, stranger, and staged with a Looney Tunes-by-way-of-meat-grinder energy, only played dead serious. Improvised weaponry? Check. Human beings turning into fireworks? Also check. Some of the best bits are in the trailer, which is a shame, because they crush harder when they blindside you. There is a gravity-defying set piece that would make Wicked blush. Nothing quite dethrones the human snorkel from round one in my personal hall of fame, but the exit chatter after this screening was loud for a reason.
Helander’s lane: western grit meets gas-fume chaos
The quiet passages shoot like a Sergio Leone western, all flinty close-ups and long, patient tension that pays off in a geyser. Then the movie guns it. A huge chunk of the runtime is essentially a chase, highlighted by a banger straight out of Mad Max: Fury Road playbook, with armored bikers swarming Korpi on a hostile road. One shot is such a clear nod to Fury Road you can almost hear the V8 rev. There is also a straight-up John McClane-style stunt that Sisu gleefully one-ups.
The vibe across both Sisu films lands like a lost 1970s relic: half western, half pulp, all grit. Heroes don’t talk much. Villains go big. Eventually those villains are paste.
The wood matters more than gold
The first movie had a stack of gold. This one has a pile of lumber. Sounds silly until it doesn’t. Every bump the planks take, every swerve that threatens to spill them, you feel Korpi flinch. It is the cleanest example of what Helander gets right: amidst the carnage, he keeps the emotional compass locked.
The verdict
Brutal, ridiculous, and unexpectedly moving, Sisu: Road to Revenge knows exactly what it is and delivers without apology. Tommila is a rock, Lang and Brake chew the icy scenery, and Helander rides the line between bone-dry sincerity and splatstick showmanship like a pro. See it big, see it loud, and bring a crowd. Call it an 8 out of 10 with a wink of blood left to spill from the legend of Koschei the Immortal.