The Best WWII Movie of 2025 Also Gave Us the Genre’s Most Devious Villain in Decades

In 2022, Finnish director Jalmari Helander sent shockwaves through audiences with his gritty and graphic action thriller, Sisu, where a gold miner silently butchers a slew of Nazis post-WWII — a straightforward premise that will win every time, especially with those action sequences. Somehow, he follows this up with a sequel that’s even more bonkers, as our favorite mute miner, Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila), faces another threat in Sisu: Road to Revenge. Not only do audiences get 90 minutes of brutal violence and ridiculous schemes to savor, but Road to Revenge delivers one of the most devious and spine-tingling villains to date, thanks to the eerily magnetic Stephen Lang.

Stephen Lang’s Villain Changes the Rules in ‘Sisu: Road to Revenge’

In Road to Revenge, Korpi discovers his family is dead and tears down his home to rebuild it in a safer place. So, he sets off on his cross-country journey, driving a truck with stacks of lumber on the back and an adorable dog in the passenger seat, only to run into trouble. After the events of the previous film, Korpi is specifically targeted as a dangerous man on the run, and this time, his foe is the Red Army killer Yeagor Draganov (Lang). With a name like that, you can only imagine the horrors committed by this man that landed him in prison. We briefly see Draganov being released from jail before he converges on Korpi with a small army of his own, determined to end the life of what he perceived as a nuisance. Naturally, Korpi proves him very, very wrong.

Draganov’s presence already establishes a new kind of dynamic in the film, where audiences can pinpoint a single genuine enemy rather than the mindless bloodbath of the first. Immediately, it is less about watching the creativity with which Korpi destroys his foes (though that is still a major draw of the gory action movie), but it also creates a more centralized channel of bloodlust we can direct towards the leader. He changes the game by heightening the stakes and pace of the action, where we are anticipating a final one-on-one battle and hoping it is as legendary as it is teed up to be.

Of course, the impact of Draganov’s character on the atmosphere is only possible because of how effectively he is written. The first thing that strikes us about Draganov is the dark voids where his eyes should be: pitiless and emotionless. He contrasts the very definition of Sisu, of what Korpi embodies, where, instead of the viscera of tenacity in the face of death, Draganov is practically soulless and has a deathly calm about him. It is encapsulated in one of their first confrontations, where Korpi is angrily shooting at enemies, and Draganov sits in a truck with his unwavering gaze on the blood-splattered man. He instructs his soldier not to move, and when his soldier fails to comply, Korpi kills him and spares Draganov’s life. Korpi is wild kinetic vitality, while Draganov is the unnerving stillness of death — fated enemies that could not have been written more perfectly.

Stephen Lang Delivers a Cold, Brutal Performance in ‘Sisu: Road to Revenge’

Lang’s performance cinches the effectiveness of Draganov as an antagonist, easily placing him in the villainous hall of fame. His ominous screen presence is encapsulated by a later scene, where Lang delivers a monologue about killing Korpi’s son. There is a terrifying fondness in how he talks about the child’s death, as if he is actively reliving and savoring each killing blow. It’s one of the rare times we see emotion on Draganov’s face, and Lang delivers it with an excruciating precision that makes our hair stand on end. For the rest of the film, he masters the icy, ruthless killer persona that viewers will recognize from the Don’t Breathe duology. There could not have been a more perfect casting choice, even with the choppy accent that only adds to the surreal cruelty of Draganov.

Draganov is easily one of the most unforgettable villains in the genre, elevating the gruesome joyride of Road to Revenge to something far more blood-curdling. Becoming the ice to Korpi’s fire, Draganov is one of the strongest elements to come out of the successful sequel and deserves a spot on the podium of villains we wouldn’t dare pit our favorite action heroes against.