TL;DR – While it loses some of its drive halfway through, it is still the action romp that it needs to be as carnage stretches across Russia.

Post-Credit Scene – There are mid-credit sequences.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Sisu: Road to Revenge Review Introduction –

It is that time of year when I take a look back on 2025, and see all the films that I missed that I need to take a look at before I start my best of 2025 lists. I won’t get to all of them; there isn’t enough time. However, one film I knew I had to see was the follow-up to a Finnish gem from 2023. Sisu is one of the few films in the post-John Wick era that took the action style and improved on it. But can lightning strike twice?  


So, to set the scene, after WW2, Finland lost territory to the Soviet Union, and the Finns living there were forced to flee. In 1946, after finding all that gold in Lappland, Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) returned to his home in Karelia, now on the wrong side of the border, to where his dead family once lived, hoping to take the house and rebuild it in a land of peace. But when Aatami crossed the border, his passport triggered a response in Soviet high command. The KGB (Richard Brake) tasks Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang), the man who killed Aatami’s family, to finish the job. But Aatami is a man who has left hundreds of Red Army and Nazi corpses in his wake, and he won’t go down without a fight.    

Action

At its heart, Sisu is an action film, so the first question we have to ask is how is the action? Well, in the opening confrontation, he uses a car door as a ram, then runs over a dude sneaking up from behind and then uses the body to jettison out as a missile. At one point, he uses falling logs as a ramp to divert a crashing plane, and I believed all of it, because his badassery is earned. This is not a film for you if you are squeamish with fake blood, because there is a lot of it sprayed/exploded/decapitated everywhere. We also get one of the better train sequences from recent times, not as good as Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, but I think it did more with what it was working with.   

Production

One thing I am glad they returned in this second outing is the style of the musical score, with its undulating throat singing being the perfect accompaniment to the action. This time, we also get a whistle for the villains, creating an acoustic variance to accompany the visuals. This is a film with a very modest budget, but they make it work because every frame is stunning. What probably helped keep the costs down in this film is that there are only really three cast members, so they chose wisely with character actor stalwarts Richard Brake and Stephen Lang rounding things out.  

Narrative

On the surface, there is not really a narrative to Sisu: Road to Revenge, as the name implies; like Mad Max Fury Road, this is essentially one long road chase as Aatami tries to make it back to the border before the Soviets kill him. However, while you could say there is the barest possible narrative framework to justify the film. Structurally, the film has created all of these narrative limitations that weigh and guide Aatami. Not only is he protecting his dog, but also his family’s house; this limits what he is able to do. He is in a truck that can’t speed away; he has to protect the home from damage, which, given that it is wood, is quite fragile to fire. All of these factors help build on the visual storytelling in interesting ways. That being said, this is a film of two halves, and the first half is the stronger section.   

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend Sisu: Road to Revenge? It does get more uneven as the film progresses, so I am not sure it hits as hard as the first entry. However, if you are a fan of action films, this is one that you should not miss off your list this year.

Have you watched Sisu: Road to Revenge? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Sisu: Road to Revenge, we would recommend Predator: Badlands to you because it also brings that same sort of chaotic action energy to the proceedings, just the blood is white.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Feel free to share this review on social media and check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Sisu: Road to Revenge
Directed by – Jalmari Helander
Written by – Jalmari Helander
Based on – Sisu by Jalmari Helander
Music by – Juri Seppä & Tuomas Wäinölä
Cinematography by – Mika Orasmaa
Edited by –  Juho Virolainen
Production/Distribution Companies – Stage 6 Films, Screen Gems, Subzero Film Entertainment, GoodChaos & Sony
Starring – Jorma Tommila, Richard Brake & Stephen Lang
With – Tommi Korpela, Kaspar Velberg, Pääru Oja & Simba
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 14A; Germany: 18; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R