Sisu: Road to Revenge - 4K UHD SteelBook

How do you follow up a tall tale of a silent one-man killing machine who evicerated a bunch of Nazis? You do it by letting that same silent one-man killing machine take on a squad of Soviet assassins! Finnish writer/director Jalmari Helander once again pits his silent antihero Aatami Korpi (the scarred, grizzled visage of Jorma Tommila) on a bloody path of redemption and revenge.

After destroying a squad of fleeing Nazi's, Aatami is trying to take the timbers of his old familial home out of now Soviet-controlled territory and back into the safe borders of Finland. Only this time, the Soviets know he’s coming. To greet the legend who killed hundreds of Red Army soldiers, they’ve unleashed their worst out of the gulag, Yeagor Dragonov (Stephen Lang), the man responsible for killing Aatami’s family, to stop the silent one-man army dead. 

At a brisk 89 minutes,  Sisu: Road to Redemption is bloody action and adventure storytelling at its simplest, without repeating the first film. Aatami’s journey is still rolling; this time, he and his dog trade their horse for a truck as they try to outrun motorcycles, airplanes, and heavy artillery to safety. It’s a more than fair comparison to suggest that this is where Helander has taken his silent anti-hero and gone full Mad Max: Fury Road with his concept - and I loved it. Well, not quite at first, but after two viewings, I’m fully on board with this sequel. 

If there’s one thing I appreciate about movie theaters today is the desire to upgrade accommodations with nice amenities like great food, a full bar, and very comfy seats that let you completely stretch out. That’s a blessing and a curse. When I saw Sisu: Road to Redemption in the theater, it came with a fully reclined seat, in a warm, cozy theater, with a nice frosty beer to go with my popcorn. Under those circumstances, I really struggled to keep awake. I was enjoying the film, no doubt, but if there was ever a location that was perfect for a nap, I was ready to go down for the count. As a result, I don’t think I fully appreciated what this film delivered as a sequel to an already fantastic action film until I saw it again at home. 

What I think I loved most about this one was the personal angle for Aatami. He can’t go all the way home after the war, his wife and child were murdered and his homeland is in Soviet control, but he can at least bring the pieces of his house back with him to start over. He didn’t go back into Soviet controlled territory to start a fight; the fight came to him. Now, given how many times he’s played the villain from films like Avatar to Conan, I was initially a little apprehensive about Stephen Lang stepping in as the man responsible for the brutal deaths of Aatami’s family. But all it took was seeing these men together to appreciate how well that casting worked. Lang is still a ferocious presence and delivers a character so rotten-to-the-core evil you want to watch Jorma Tommila beat the piss out of him in a winner-take-all fight to the death.

And once again, Jorma delivers another impressive turn as Aatami. Silent to the end, he carries that weight of experience and emotion in every creased line in his scarred face. Without speaking, it's this purely physical performance that never becomes cartoonish; he never mugs for the camera. He’s just a determined man willing to do whatever it takes to get from point B back to point A…even if that means killing a bunch of Russians. Knowing that Jalmari Helander is at the helm of the now-shooting Stallone-free franchise prequel, John Rambo, I’m actually excited for how good that film could turn out. Sisu and Sisu: Road to Revenge is enough of a resume to instill confidence for that franchise. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Sony takes the wheel, driving Sisu: Road to Revenge to 4K UHD SteelBook glory. A single-disc 4K + Digital set, the 4K disc is pressed on a BD66 disc. The included digital copy is Movies Anywhere compatible. The disc loads to an animated main menu with standard navigation options, with the slim selection of bonus features along the right side of the screen.

At the time of writing, I was unable to locate any information to suggest how Sisu: Road to Revenge was captured, but it’s a safe wager it was a digital production. Regardless, the image is terrific, delivering a fully detailed action epic in 2160p Dolby Vision HDR. If it were a digital production, it looks like a slight grain filter was added to give the image a gritty texture, and thankfully, it’s pretty convincing. I’ve seen a number of modern features attempt that appearance, and it just looks all kinds of wrong. Given the time period and the subject, that extra visual grit suits the mayhem well. Facial features, clothing textures, the knots and splinters of the wooden beams, and the copious gore and makeup FX all receive care and attention in this transfer. Some of the CGI effects are a little less convincing, a little more cartoonish or weightless, but they’re such fleeting moments and the intensity of the scene is so magnetic, I didn’t much care. There’s still so much amazing physical and practical work on screen to enjoy. Black levels are deep and inky with lovely shadows, creating a nice sense of depth. Whites and contrast are on point. Colors have a slightly muted quality to them, but we still get some lovely primaries, and reds certainly get their time to shine, what with all the blood and viscera. All around, great looking transfer.

One of the weirdest things about the first run of Sisu on disc was the lack of Atmos. If there was ever a time to have Atmos, it’d be when a silent man is evicerating Nazi’s whislt in a plane that is about to crash nose-first into a Lapland bog. Thankfully, with Sony managing this release, we get a damned great Atmos mix to crank the volume for. You’ve got airplanes zipping through the treetops overhead. You’ve got motorcycles coming up from behind zig-zagging left and right through the soundscape. You’ve got explosions. You’ve got broken glass entering flesh. You have copious numbers of bullets turning once human forms into swiss cheese slices. You’ve got Nathan Lang and Richard Brake really leaning into those Russian wubble-ues. All of it builds into a rich, fully immersive sonic adventure. Just as important as all that noise, the film knows how to use silence to build tension and excitement. So between the great sound placement, the clean dialogue (accents notwithstanding), and the great score from Juri Seppä and Tuomas Wäinölä, you’ve got one hell of an Atmos mix to blast away with. 

Where this release stumbles is the lack of extras. Not that the previous film had that many either, but the making-of is nothing really to speak about, barely qualifying as EPK material. And the included Alternate Ending is delivered without any context, and in such a way, it makes little sense other than as a callback to the first film. The sum total of this extra features package is less than four minutes.

• Upping the Ante (HD 3:03)
• Deleted Scene - Alternate Ending (HD 00:41)

Sisu: Road to Revenge is one of those rare sequels that stands on its own terms and, because of that, is almost just as good as the first film. You don't need to see Sisu to enjoyt the hell out of Sisu: Road to Revenge. If I had to rank them, I would put the first film higher up the chain because it was so unique and exciting and fresh. This one isn’t as fresh; it’s more familiar, but because it has a stronger, more personal human road for Aatami to travel, it makes for a very satisfying follow-up. While we might not get another sequel in this franchise - the anemic box office take doesn't help that outlook - we do have Jalmari Helander’s upcoming Rambo prequel to look forward to. On 4k UHD disc, Sisu: Road to Revenge is an A/V beast delivering a terrific Dolby Vision transfer with a damned impressive, exciting Atmos track. Sadly, the extras, with a total run time of less than four minutes, are a virtual non-starter. But, the film is great, the video and audio are fantastic. It’s one I’ll revisit many more times down the road. Highly Recommended