This Upcoming 2025 Movie Is The Best Action Sequel Since John Wick 4 [Fantastic Fest]

Action sequels, like most movie sequels, tend to just rely on repetition. Now that the original idea was well received, it's easy to fall into the trap of just doing more of the same, but bigger and more expensive. The best sequels, however, are those that recognize you can't just do the same thing again and go in wildly new directions. That's why "Mad Max: Fury Road" is widely considered not only one of the best sequels ever made, but one of the best movies ever, period. Likewise, "John Wick: Chapter 4" is cut from that same cloth of not trying to do the same thing but rather take the original concept to new heights via significantly different tones, and is also a movie that — like "Fury Road" — looks impossible to make without killing half the stunt crew.

Now, in 2025, we have another action sequel that can join those two in how it takes a wild chance that pays off big time. This is a period war action movie set on a Finnish Fury Road, and a live-action Bugs Bunny movie. It is Jalmari Helander's "Sisu: Road to Revenge" (though its Finnish title, "Si2u," is stylized way better), the sequel to the kick-ass Nazi-killing film from 2022 starring Jorma Tommila.

Helander reportedly refused to make a sequel even though Sony initially pressured him to do so, until he came up with an idea he was satisfied with. In "Road to Revenge," we trade Nazis for Soviets, as Finland enters the post-WWII era by losing a big chunk of its territory to the Soviet Union. The film follows Aatami Korpi (Tommila), who lost his family during the war and whose home is now part of a different country. Korpi sets out to dismantle his home and take it with him as he crosses the border. The problem is that the Soviets really don't like the idea of "the man who refuses to die" just being out there breathing and inspiring hope and rebellious sentiment amongst the Finns, so they send Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang), the Red Army officer who killed Korpi's family, to extinguish the legend he helped create.

From there, we get a brutal, over-the-top, balls-to-the-wall entertaining war film that's very much like "Fury Road" but with way more Soviets.

"Sisu: Road to Revenge" wastes no time in putting pedal to the metal and starts dropping bodies off like flies. The entire first act of the movie is essentially one big chase scene through the desolate Finnish countryside, a glorious cacophony of violence and death on the Fury Road. Korpi (accompanied by his faithful dog) drives a truck packed with the logs that once formed his family home, littering the road with the corpses of the Red Army soldiers who try to shoot at him or blow him up, with contrived ways of disposing of those soldiers. What begins with foot soldiers and Molotov cocktails gives way to motorcyclists with machine guns, tanks, and even planes shooting and dropping bombs on Korpi and his dog.

Like "Fury Road," this is a relentlessly fast-paced movie where each set piece is more elaborate and impressive than the last. Is it absolutely ludicrous? Absolutely. At one point, Korpi takes a plane down using nothing but a handful of pieces of wood, and it is the most incredible, air-fist-bum-worthy moment of 2025 so far.

But what truly makes this movie special is how it doesn't just go for pure "Fury Road," but takes that concept and uses it as a launching pad for even crazier set pieces. That's because Korpi isn't driving in a truck the entire movie, but eventually trades vehicles and the movie stages epic battles on tanks, and eventually a train packed with armed Red Army soldiers.

The action in "Sisu: Road to Revenge" never feels repetitive and never feels anything less than rad as hell. In that regard, it is very much like "John Wick: Chapter 4," which used action to tell its story visually and which offered a big variety of set pieces. By the time Korpi starts killing Soviet soldiers on a train to Siberia, bloodied and mangled but with inhuman determination, it is not just the bloody and violent climax of the story, but also a third act packed with historical context for decades' worth of Finnish/Russian conflict and the personal motivation and backstory of Korpi.

There is no reason why "Sisu: Road to Revenge" should work. Having a protagonist that the audience knows is basically immortal could easily destroy any stakes possible, but the movie manages to overcome any doubts to deliver the best action movie of 2025 and the best action sequel since "John Wick: Chapter 4."