Here’s What Makes Nazi-Killing Wild Ride ‘Sisu’ Action Movie Gold

The Finnish historical action movie Sisu is a wild ride that has to be seen to be believed. It is inspired carnage, a decadent smorgasbord of influences and ingenious homages to numerous genre movies.

Although it’s an original idea, it makes perfect sense when you hear about the visionary melange that inspired Sisu.

“First Blood is one of the key influences but also Sergio Leone’s Westerns,” explained writer-director Jalmari Helander. “To be honest, there is a huge variety of films infused in Sisu. Some say, ‘It’s so much like Mad Max: Fury Road,’ but that never occurred to me when I did it.” Many comparisons have also been drawn with the John Wick movies.

Sisu is set in World War II and follows Aatami Korpi, played by Jorma Tommila, the gold prospector in Lapland who barely says a word throughout the movie. The Nazis want his gold, but he doesn’t want to give it to them. They make the monumental mistake of trying to take it, and things get messy.

The synopsis sounds like something you would discover in a video store and rent back in the day. That’s intentional.

“The 80s and 90s play a big part in what I like because I am built of that material. That’s the era I grew up in, so I wanted the retro feel to be in there alongside the feeling of classic cinema in Sisu, too,” Helander explained. “There have been comparisons with Tarantino which I think it’s a bit unfair. Sure, we are both influenced by the same kind of films, but I’m copying them rather than him. We can share those influences.”

One of the reasons Sisu has drawn comparisons with the works of Tarantino is its use of chapter titles. The iconic American filmmaker has utilized the narrative mechanic several times in his movies, including Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds, The Hateful Eight, and Kill Bill: Vol 1 and 2.

Having the chapter titles there at all was not the original plan.

“In the early stages of editing the film, it somehow started to feel very serious in a weird way, so I added the chapters,” Helander recalled. “That was before the movie took its own shape. I was planning to take them out, but they stayed in for a while, and then the producers saw it and watched it with them in, and we got to like them, so we decided to have them in the finished film.”

He continued, “It was also a way of creating a style through the font and the feel of the title. There is also the voiceover at the beginning of the film, which wasn’t there initially. We added it. That gives Sisu an old kind of movie trailer feel, which helps you understand that this is not something to take very seriously.”

It wasn’t the only unexpected creative choice that resulted from the project’s natural evolution. Sisu‘s lead character, Aatami, only speaks at the very end of the movie. However, that wasn’t always the plan.

“I spend a lot of time thinking about what his words would be when he spoke. When I was shooting it, I was 100 percent sure I was not going to use the dialogue,” Helander divulged. “I shot a version where he just has a little smile in the end. That was actually the last scene we shot.”

The filmmaker said it was “so weird” for him to hear the character speak. “I couldn’t take it in, but when we were editing, at some point, it became clear that it was the right choice,” he added. “We showed it to some people with the dialogue, and everyone was like, ‘Agh! What the f**k was that? That’s the coolest thing!’ It was still weird.”

Sisu was an indie made for around $6.6 million (€6 million). Lionsgate bought it for US theatrical release after its barnstorming performance in the coveted Midnight Madness spot at the Toronto Film Festival. It lands in over 1,000 theaters on Friday, April 28, 2022.

Writer-director Helander only ever had one person in mind for Sisu’s lead role.

“When you have to be silent for almost the whole movie, that’s the challenge. Jorma, who plays Aatami Korpi, is carrying the whole film on his shoulders, and then he doesn’t even speak,” he admitted. “I couldn’t have imagined doing it with anyone other than Jorma because of his face. You can film it, and even though he’s not doing anything sometimes, he looks interesting and can deliver all kinds of feelings in small and cool ways.

“It would be almost impossible to have done casting for it. I knew from the very first second that Jorma would be my guy, and he was the first person I called when I had the idea.”

Helander also revealed he wouldn’t have even wanted to discuss putting an internationally-known actor in the lead role.

“It would have been an impossible conversation to have because it would have been so f**king stupid of me doing a Finnish film of a real Finnish idea and even have someone from Sweden play it,” the filmmaker scoffed. “They had to be from Finland. Even though I would have everyone to choose from, I would still do it with Jorma because I tailored the whole idea around him. That’s why I wanted to keep the budget at a sensible amount because then you don’t have to be in that conversation.”

Although he’s used to working with a range of small to mid-range budgets, Sisu threw up production challenges that Helander didn’t expect.

“Some days, it was difficult even to get all the s**t we needed to the place where we were,” the writer-director said, sounding exhausted even at the thought. “It was so windy, and that was probably the biggest challenge because being in that kind of weather is exhausting, and you can’t speak to anyone. There is also stuff flying everywhere, making basic things incredibly hard.

“However,” he continued, “The horse was the biggest challenge. I was thrilled to get to the part of the movie where the horse no longer existed. We took an entire day to film Jorma’s character riding his horse in a cool landscape. I probably got about three or four seconds of material I could use from that day because the horse ran away.

“We’ve found it something like 11 kilometers away, off in the wilderness, and all the props on the horse’s back feel off in the mountains. I’m laughing now, but I wasn’t laughing then.”

Sisu feels like the beginning of a world that could grow into a universe of sequels, prequels, and spin-offs. It’s also so solid as a standalone piece that it would be a shame to do that.

“I have the exact same feeling,” Helander concluded. “However, I still have a cool sequel idea in my mind, and it would involve many Russians dying, but I don’t know what will happen with that.”