The first Sisu saw the legendary one-man death squad Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) unleashed hell on the Nazis, killing plenty of them in every brutal way possible. It was a gleefully violent World War II-set revenge thriller anchored by Tommila’s no-nonsense, laconic performance, while Jalmari Helander’s muscular direction evokes the stylish and gritty John Wick-like action mayhem. Well, Aatami is back for another round of nonstop bloodbath in Sisu: Road to Revenge, where Helander retains the concise 90-minute runtime just like the first movie. He doesn’t complicate things by keeping his story straightforward because what matters the most is that action speaks louder than words. In other words, fans of the first movie are in for a treat.
So, World War II may have been over, and Aatami has returned to his family home, where his wife and child used to be. But they had already died during the war, even though the sense of grief and memory was still etched in his mind. He’s not looking to settle down, but instead, takes the wooden house apart and loads the lumber on his truck. Together with his Bedlington terrier, he sets out on a long journey back to Finland.
Meanwhile, a Russian general (Richard Brake) releases Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang) from prison, once a Red Army commander responsible for slaughtering Aatami’s family. The general wants Aatami dead, and Igor is looking forward to fulfilling his mission. But as we have learned in Sisu, killing someone like Aatami is equivalent to a suicide mission. Not that Igor cares, since he has the army at his disposal to get the job done. Or so he thinks, and it doesn’t take long before the action starts ramping up from the earlier stretch.
Adopting the same chapter-style narrative previously seen in the first movie, Helander maintains a consistent pace throughout the movie that leaves little room for you to take a breath. Once the action begins, he never lets up, going on and on by staging one thrilling set piece after another as we see Aatami’s seemingly indestructible one-man army has his way of killing Igor’s soldiers. Their death covers everything from being torched alive to a bloody headshot through the windshield, and at one point, getting stabbed multiple times while sleeping on a bunk bed.
With a bigger budget this time around, that means Helander has the opportunity to expand his scope in the action department. There’s an elaborate chase sequence between the truck and the motorcycles that reminds me of a Mad Max-style vehicular pursuit, complete with explosions and bodies being mutilated in a gory fashion. And if that’s not enough, Helander throws in a multiple plane attack, resulting in one of the unexpectedly creative moments where Aatami’s improvisational skills manage to take down a plane with just lumber. The kind of scene that needs to be seen to believe. It’s absurd and over-the-top, but that’s the whole point of Sisu: Road to Revenge. Logics are thrown out of the window in favor of all things visceral, mean-spirited fun, and Helander fully embraces it wholeheartedly like a badge of honor.
The minimalist storytelling continues to work in the director’s favor, while Tommila’s predominantly wordless performance excels in his rugged, take-no-prisoners character. His never-give-up determination and resilience to make sure he manages to transport the lumber back to Finland, no matter the obstacles, is admirable; that it’s hard not to root for his journey. The movie puts him through the wringer so that you feel his pain and fatigue, which he is forced to endure despite the copious number of sustained injuries from fighting the enemies.
The sequel’s introduction of Igor Draganov, played to menacing perfection by Stephen Lang, proves to be a worthy yet formidable adversary to Tommila’s Aatami. He is just as crazy and isn’t afraid of death, and like Aatami, he refuses to quit until he completes his objective, and at the same time, his appearance raises the necessary stakes to justify the existence of this sequel. When the two eventually come face to face during the climactic third act aboard the moving train, it’s all hell breaks loose between Aatami and Igor.
Sisu: Road to Revenge is no doubt one of the best action movies I’ve ever come across this year, proving that the beauty of simplicity in its storytelling speaks volumes with the visual language all well put together. This can be evidently seen not just in Helander’s impressive flair for outlandish and kinetic action set pieces but also in his sense of pacing, coupled with Big Game’s Mika Orasmaa’s cinematography, capturing the grimy and gritty aesthetics against the backdrop of a rural countryside.
