There’s a particular look a survivor gives the road—jaw set, eyes like frostbitten steel, knuckles welded to the wheel. That’s the first image from Sisu: Road to Revenge, and it hits like shrapnel. No speeches, no swagger. Just a human battering ram pointed due vengeance. It’s the kind of “First Look” that doesn’t ask for attention; it takes it.
Jalmari Helander is back in the saddle (and then some), with Jorma Tommila returning as Aatami, the stubborn ghost of a man who keeps outliving his enemies on principle. The sequel plants its flag at Fantastic Fest in late September 2025 for a world premiere before rolling into U.S. theaters on November 21, 2025 via Screen Gems. Those are the facts—clean, confirmed, stamped in ammunition tin. See the lineup note at TheWrap and the date confirmation in ScreenDaily for the paper trail.
The premise? Grimmer, stranger, somehow… sweeter. Aatami returns to the ruins of his family home—splinters, memories, ghosts—and decides to haul the whole house across country to rebuild it someplace safer. It’s mythic in a blunt way. Then the past swerves into the present: the Red Army commander who massacred his family (Stephen Lang) comes hunting, and suddenly we’re in a relentless chase film—clattering metal, improvised traps, improbable survivals that flirt with the absurd and make it sing. (Helander’s specialty, really.)
Production shifted from Finland to Estonia this time, and you can feel the grit in the frame—the Baltic roads, the wintry light, the whole landscape conspiring to sandpaper the characters down to intent. Bigger canvas, too: the budget reportedly more than doubled from the original’s lean $6M, which turned a global $14M haul into a cult afterlife on streaming. The math checks out—audiences found it late and kept passing it around like a forbidden comic book.
Tonally, Helander is still playing the same jagged riff: a 1940s pulp revenge fable tuned to modern action rhythms. If Sisu felt like a Finnish cousin to John Wick (grim humor, cartoon survivalism, “you’ve got to be kidding me” kills), Road to Revenge looks ready to lean harder into the chase—trucks, tanks, stubborn men, and physics treated as a polite suggestion. Gorgeous. Grating. Gorgeous again.
And Tommila—63 when the first film landed—built a whole character out of silence and spite. Minimal dialogue, maximum kinetic meaning. From this first image, he hasn’t softened; he’s calcified. You can practically smell diesel and cold iron through the cracked windshield. (Maybe they shot this during a freak cold snap? Everyone looks half-frozen.)
If you’re wondering whether the sequel will over-explain Aatami… don’t. The logline is a poem: take the house, honor the dead, keep moving. Revenge as a road movie. It’s blunt, a little silly, and—if Helander sticks the landing—oddly moving. Money can’t buy peace; motion sometimes can.
Confirmed dates to circle:
- World premiere: Fantastic Fest, late September 2025 (Austin).
- U.S. theatrical release: November 21, 2025 (Screen Gems).
