Jalmari Helander’s new film “Sisu: Road to Revenge”, the sequel to his previous film “Sisu”, is a simple but very intense action movie which is actually quite amusing from time to time. Again, our taciturn hero is going to show us what a single-minded tough guy he really is (“Sisu” is Finnish concept and cultural virtue representing extraordinary determination, courage, and grit in the face of extreme adversity, by the way), and the movie alternatively excites and amuses us via a series of well-made action sequences peppered with a bit of naughty deadpan humor.    

The story is set around the border area between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1946. Not long after World War II was over, Finland ceded the territory of Karelia to the Soviet Union as a part of their peace treaty, but this does not stop Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) at all, a former Finnish Army commando who became quite legendary for his sheer bravery and perseverance during his country’s war with the Soviet Union. His wife and children, who happened to reside in Karelia during that time, are sadly dead now, and their family house is currently abandoned, but he is going to go there just for disassembling the house and then re-assembling it somewhere else in Finland. 

While passing the border turns out to be quite easy, a big problem soon comes to Korpi. Shortly after the news about Korpi crossing the border is delivered to the Soviet Army, his old opponent, Yeagor Draganov (Stephen Lang), is released from a Siberian prison for an immediate special mission for him. He is instructed to capture Korpi by any means necessary, and, as a man responsible for Korpi’s personal tragedy, he is certainly quite ready for being back in action.

Once its story setting is established, the movie immediately goes all the way for action, and what follows next is a well-executed variation of George Miller’s Mad Max movies. As driving his big truck along a remote road with a pet dog on the passenger’s seat, Korpi comes across one obstacle after another thanks to Draganov and those Soviet soldiers under his command, and he surely shows them that he is definitely not someone they can mess with from the beginning. No matter how much they attempt to attack him in one way or another, he always manages to not only survive but also throw some brutal counterattacks upon them, and he even surprises Draganov more than once.

 Just like the predecessor, the movie does not hesitate to go over the top during some of its most intense moments, and that is where it shows some wry black humor. In case of one particular action scene involved with a couple of fighter planes swooping over Korpi’s truck, its digital special effects look a bit too cheap and artificial in my humble opinion, but they are mixed fairly well into the busy actions unfolded onto the screen, and we come to go gladly along with that as having some good laughs from a number of exaggerated moments of action.

During its second half, the movie shifts itself onto a different action mode, but there is still plenty of stuffs to thrill and then amuse you. I particularly like a moment when Korpi must walk barefoot across the floor strewn with shards of glass without making any noise at all for his safety, and you will surely wince a lot while also appreciating a dark sense of humor inside this moment. 

Although he does not say that much to the end of the movie, Jorma Tommlia, who previously collaborated with Helander in several films besides “Sisu”, fills his archetype role with a lot of intensity and focus, and his committed physical performance carries the movie to the end without any misstep. Even when his character does not seem to signify anything to us, we can somehow sense more of what has constantly been driving his character, and Tommlia also does a good job of conveying to us a bit of humanity inside his character. All Korpi wants to do is honoring the memories of his dead family on his terms, and he is quite determined to accomplish this personal mission of his, no matter how much he must fight with his numerous opponents along his solitary quest.        

On the opposite, Stephen Lang, who recently played another big bad dude in James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (2025), complements Tommlia’s stoic acting with his deliberately broad but equally strong acting. While surely having a lot of fun with showing off how villainous his character is, Lang also embodies well his character’s steely determination and ruthlessness, and he often brings extra charge to the movie whenever that is necessary. Thanks to Lang, Draganov comes to us as a truly menacing opponent for Korpi, and the movie surely does not disappoint us at all when these two tough dudes finally have a duel of fate during the finale (Is this a spoiler, folks?).

On the whole, “Sisu: Road to Revenge” is a solid sequel packed with enough fun and excitement. After he drew my attention for the first time with his first feature film “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale” (2010), Helander disappointed me a bit with his next film “Big Game” (2014), but he eventually bounced from that mildly low point with “Sisu”, and now he demonstrates more of his considerable talent as a good action movie director here in this movie. At present, he is working on the prequel to Ted Kotcheff’s “First Blood” (1982), and I must confess that I do not have much expectation on that upcoming film for understandable reasons (Seriously, do we really need that?), but it will probably not be that boring at least considering what he impressively achieved in “Sisu: Road to Revenge”.