Jorma Tommila in Sisu (Antti Rastivo/Lionsgate)

Set during the dying days of the Nazi occupation of Finland, Sisu begins with a portentous narration spilling lots of exposition. The music is bombastic and menacing. Every moment is laden with symbolism.

However, the first 20 minutes is a feint. All the self-conscious seriousness is a set up for what can only be described as WWII John Wick. All prospector Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila), a middle-aged bearded man who has definitely seen his share of life, wants is to be left alone to pan for gold in the wilderness, but the Nazis have to eff with him, and he kills a few of them from the squadron led by Bruno Helldorf (Aksel Hennie). Bruno then goes off-mission, venturing further into Finnish territory to finish Aatami off for his gold and to get his revenge. Both goals turn out to be exceedingly hard to do as his men get picked off one by one in brutal, outrageous, and occasionally hysterical fashion.

It is always refreshing when a director knows what he wants his film to be, and director Jalmari Helander absolutely has his vision in mind and hews to it. Sisu is not original by any means—it practically cribs Richard Crenna’s speech from Rambo verbatim. But it is clever, funny, and rousing in equal measures. Everyone involved commits 100 percent. Hennie as the Nazi commander makes a formidable foe. Ruthless yet certainly human, he sees Aatami’s attack on his men as a personal front (yet he absolutely does not care about them as human beings), and he sees stealing Aatami’s gold as a chance to escape from Germany, well aware that the Axis powers are going to lose and he has a good shot at being jailed and executed.

As the Nazi killing machine, Tommila’s physical presence and commitment to the moment, which usually means beating the crap out of adversaries, is astonishing. The physical beatings Aatami takes are monumental, but like the Terminator, he keeps plodding on, ready for more carnage. For someone who is meant to be a cipher, we can see his every thought, though, admittedly, most of his thoughts are lethal. It is a complete physical and emotional performance.

If you come for action, you will not be disappointed. There are so many set pieces awash with bullets, fists, guns, and humor (as well as copious amounts of blood and gore), and each one seems to top the next. Some are straightforward: A fistfight here, a slit throat there, but I guarantee you that, until now, you haven’t seen anyone use a landmine as a shot put that lands on an enemy’s head. This is the type of ridiculousness that downplays the violence and makes the film cartoonish enough to comfortably stomach the mayhem. For a film awash in tropes, if not clichés, it still manages to surprise at every turn.