Sisu: Road to Revenge

by Mike McGranaghan

The 2023 action movie Sisu is an unlikely choice to warrant a sequel. It grossed a mere $7 million at the North American box office, plus an additional $7 million in foreign ticket sales. Not exactly Wicked money. Nevertheless, I’m glad there’s a sequel, and people who liked the original will be glad too. Sisu: Road to Revenge ups the ante on insane carnage, proving itself to be as funny as it is bloody.

Set in 1944, the film follows the continuing adventures of former Finnish army commando Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila). He makes his way back into Soviet-occupied Finland, an act that attracts the notice of the Red Army. Russian officer Igor Dragonov (Stephen Lang), the guy who killed Korpi’s family, is assigned to finish off the job by killing him, as well.

That’s it. That’s the entire plot. What follows is an extended chase as Dragonov and his goons pursue Korpi, only to realize that he doesn’t die easily.

Sisu: Road to Revenge is a meal consisting of empty calories. It sure does taste good, though. Rather than plot or character development, we get a series of brutal action scenes that contain a weirdly charming sense of dark humor. Korpi outruns Soviet vehicles in his beat-up logging truck. He dodges aerial assaults from bomber planes. He fights his way through a train loaded with enemies. People get shot, beheaded, impaled, sliced, diced, and stabbed.

There’s something impressive about how writer/director Jalmari Helander handles the violence. You can't avoid giggling at its outrageousness. Laws of gravity and physics are cheerfully ignored. Everyone will have their favorite crazy moment. Mine comes when Korpi makes a tank somersault in the air to get past a Russian barricade. The movie is not unlike a blood-soaked Looney Tune, especially once a giant rocket comes into play. Dragonov is Wile E. Coyote to Korpi’s Road Runner.

Running a taut 89 minutes (which includes about seven minutes of end credits), Sisu: Road to Revenge works in a manner similar to a shot of adrenaline. The non-stop action revs you up. Tommila is again effective in a wordless role, conveying everything we need to know about Korpi though his physicality, and Lang is always menacing when playing a villain. Their efforts help make the film a giddy treat for action aficionados.

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