Sisu: Road to Revenge — Jorma Tommila’s Silent Finn Becomes a One-Man Revenge Machine
Jalmari Helander’s Sisu: Road to Revenge is a 2025 revenge-action sequel that premiered at Fantastic Fest and will reach U.S. theaters on Nov. 21, 2025. The film stars Jorma Tommila as Aatami Korpi and Stephen Lang as Red Army officer Igor Draganov. It follows the 2022 film Sisu and continues a spare, action-focused approach with minimal dialogue and a chaptered structure.
Overview
Sisu: Road to Revenge is set in 1946 and continues the story of Aatami Korpi, a Finnish veteran. The film shows Korpi trying to move building materials across a new border after parts of Finland were ceded to the USSR. In addition, the movie uses a six-chapter format that divides the protagonist’s encounters into escalating confrontations.
Plot basics
Aatami returns to a rural area that is now under Soviet control. He dismantles his house and attempts to move the materials to unoccupied Finland, but comes into conflict with a Red Army officer named Igor Draganov, who has been tasked with hunting him down. Draganov is shown to have overseen a purge that left Aatami’s family dead, providing a direct motive within the story.
The film opens with expository text about the term Sisu. Specifically, the text describes sisu as “a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination.” The movie contains little spoken dialogue, and much of its narrative is conveyed through action and visual beats.
Style and structure
The sequel follows the original movie’s minimalist approach: sparse dialogue, clear hero-versus-villain dynamics, and a sequence of set-piece confrontations. The film divides action into distinct waves of enemies that lead to an ultimate boss confrontation, and it shows the protagonist facing progressively worse injuries while continuing to fight.
Helander described his approach in an interview at Fantastic Fest, saying, “I like to keep things as simple as possible.” The production emphasizes practical and staged destruction, and the plot centers on a personal objective — moving the house materials — rather than on institutional or political nuance.
Cast and crew
The film is directed by Jalmari Helander. Jorma Tommila returns as Aatami Korpi. Stephen Lang plays the antagonist Igor Draganov. Helander is also connected to a separate project: he has been contracted to direct a Rambo prequel, according to reporting on the project.
For further reading about Helander’s Rambo involvement, see this report.
Release and screenings
The film had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin in 2025. It will be released in theaters on Nov. 21, 2025. The Fantastic Fest screening included a public Q&A and coverage from genre outlets during the event.
Sources and links
Historical context around the earlier conflict referenced in the film is available in public encyclopedic entries, for example the Winter War summary on Wikipedia: Winter War.
For a short clip referenced earlier about baiting a trap, see the following video link:
For the film trailer and related promotional videos, see:
Additional reporting on Helander and the Sisu films appeared alongside festival coverage and trade reporting.
