The Man Who Refuses to Die Returns: Inside SISU: Road to Revenge
By Mitchell Peters
There’s a moment early in SISU: Road to Revenge when Aatami Korpi — the Finnish commando better known as “the man who refuses to die” — tears down his own home. It’s not out of despair. It’s an act of defiance. He dismantles it log by log, loads it onto a battered truck, and heads toward safer ground. For Aatami, survival isn’t enough — redemption requires movement, rebuilding, and one last reckoning.
It’s an image that tells you everything you need to know about this film and about Jalmari Helander, the writer-director whose 2023 cult hit Sisu made audiences gasp, laugh, and cheer at its sheer audacity. If the first film was a wild, blood-splattered fable about endurance, the sequel turns the volume up to eleven. Road to Revenge is grittier, meaner, funnier, and — somehow — even more cinematic.
“Sisu was about a man refusing to die,” Helander says. “This one’s about what he does after he survives.”
The Legend Evolves
In Finnish, sisu is a word without a true English translation. It’s something like courage or determination — but distilled, frozen, and sharpened by centuries of hard winters and harder wars. The first Sisu introduced us to Aatami Korpi (played by Jorma Tommila), a near-mythic former soldier who single-handedly decimated a Nazi platoon at the tail end of World War II. It was brutal, hilarious, and cathartic — a revenge fantasy wrapped in art-house grit.
Now, Helander has resurrected his stoic antihero for another round. Set two years later, SISU: Road to Revenge finds Aatami navigating the ruins of a country still reeling from conflict. Finland has ceded a tenth of its territory to the Soviet Union, and Aatami — haunted by the slaughter of his family — is determined to reclaim what was his. His way of doing that is both poetic and insane: he decides to take his home back, literally.
Of course, peace is not in the cards. His nemesis, Red Army commander Yeagor Dragunov (played by Avatar’s Stephen Lang), isn’t done with him yet. Their mutual history — soaked in blood and tragedy — erupts into a full-blown chase across the scorched borderlands. The result is a symphony of carnage, where tanks, Molotov cocktails, and even missiles become instruments of revenge.
Aatami vs. the World
Producer Petri Jokiranta, who’s worked with Helander for nearly two decades, says the story’s power lies in its simplicity. “You start with something audiences can instantly connect to,” he explains. “A man who’s lost everything. A home he’s trying to reclaim. Then you build the craziest, most inventive action imaginable on top of that.”
Helander and Jokiranta share a taste for the ridiculous — the kind that’s grounded in emotional truth. Where Hollywood often relies on CGI chaos, Helander prefers invention: a tank roaring across a frozen lake, a truck full of timber hurtling through explosions, and a hero who seems powered by grief as much as gasoline.
Producer Mike Goodridge says the director wouldn’t have revisited Sisu unless he could top himself. “He wanted a reason,” Goodridge says. “In this one, Aatami dismantles his house and takes it home. It’s both crazy and kind of beautiful. It’s about carrying memory, carrying loss — literally on your back — through hell.”
The Return of the Unkillable Man
At the heart of it all is Jorma Tommila, once again delivering a performance built on silence and steel. He barely speaks, yet every twitch of his face tells you what Aatami’s thinking — rage, sorrow, exhaustion, hope. “Jorma can say everything without a single line of dialogue,” Helander says. “That’s what makes him unique. You feel his grief, but you also feel his power.”
For Tommila, this second outing reveals a slightly more human side to his indestructible warrior. “Aatami was a family man before the war,” he says. “He’s lost everything. But somehow, he’s found a new purpose. He’s still broken — but he believes there might be a future.”
Stephen Lang, meanwhile, relishes the chance to embody Aatami’s mirror image. “I loved the first film,” he admits. “It had style, muscle, and heart. Road to Revenge takes all of that and makes it even more unpredictable. Dragunov’s not just a villain; he’s another survivor, shaped by the same war. He just chose a darker path.”
Lang’s Dragunov is the ultimate nemesis — cold, methodical, and terrifyingly rational. When the two men finally collide, it’s less a battle than a collision of wills. “They’re both ghosts of the same war,” Jokiranta notes. “Two men who can’t move on, fighting because it’s all they know.”
Blood, Snow, and Heart
Every Sisu film comes with its own unlikely co-star, and in Road to Revenge, that honor once again goes to Aatami’s loyal dog, Ukko — played by canine actor Simba. “He’s the one character everyone roots for unconditionally,” Helander laughs. “He’s fearless, loyal, and steals every scene he’s in.”
Add to that a massive truck carrying the dismantled house and you have what Tommila calls “a second hero.” “That truck is like Aatami himself,” he says. “Beaten, scarred, but still moving forward.”
Behind the camera, Helander reunites his core creative team: cinematographer Mika Orasmaa, production designer Otso Linnalaakso, and composer duo Juri Seppä and Tuomas Wäinölä. Together, they craft a world of ash, snow, and fire — a fever dream of post-war despair shot through with absurd humor.
“Jalmari is one of the great action directors working today,” Goodridge insists. “But he also brings heart. He knows how to make you care about a man covered in mud and blood.”
The Spirit of Sisu
Ultimately, SISU: Road to Revenge is more than an action sequel — it’s a hymn to resilience. Like its hero, it never stops moving, never gives up, never dies.
Helander puts it simply: “You think Aatami’s done, and then he stands up again. That’s Sisu. That’s the spirit we all need.”
In a year of recycled franchises and bloated blockbusters, SISU: Road to Revenge feels like something forged from iron and willpower — a film that bleeds, sweats, and breathes. It’s proof that even in cinema, true grit never goes out of style.
Thanks to our friends at Sony Pictures we have 5 in-season double passes to give away to SISU: Road to Revenge. To be in the running to win one of 5 in-season double passes, follow ‘timeoff’ on instagram at “timeoffmagazine” then send an email to with “SISU” in the subject line and include your postal address. Winners will be notified by return email. QLD addresses only. One entry per person. No entries via third party sites. Comp closes November 18, 2025.