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Plot Summary

Rendel (2017) Plot Summary Explained

Release, runtime and language
2017 · 105 mins · Finnish
JustWatch #23,018 4
Starring
Matti Onnismaa, Reino Nordin, Alina Tomnikov, Rami Rusinen, Bianca Bradey, Sheila Shah

Revenge begets revenge. Rendel, a masked superhero, becomes blinded by his desire for revenge against a sinister criminal organization.

On this page (6)
  1. 1 Where to watch
  2. 2 What happens: full plot
  3. 3 Plot questions answered
  4. 4 Movie threads
  5. 5 Movies like Rendel
  6. 6 Every angle

Where to watch

Where to Watch Rendel (2017)

Where can you watch Rendel? Stream, rent or buy it in the US, including on Amazon Prime Video, Fawesome and Hoopla: current JustWatch availability with up-to-date prices.

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Full plot summary · contains spoilers

What Happens in Rendel: Full Plot Summary

The whole story of Rendel (2017) explained, from the opening scene to the final frame: every key event, every twist and what it all adds up to. Read it as a quick recap before the sequel, to check a scene you missed, or to finally understand what really happened.

In the city of Mikkeli, Finland, a company called VALA has developed a vaccine that looks successful on the surface but has never undergone proper testing. Behind VALA’s gleaming façade, a criminal organization steers the operation, led by Pekka Erola, a figure who wields power with quiet menace. His son, Rotikka, stands among the group’s most violent enforcers, loyal to the cause and ruthless in pursuit of anyone who threatens it. A shadowy, all-black figure begins to strike VALA and its men with startling precision, and Rotikka notices a chilling pattern: each victim bears the name "Rendel" etched into their bodies.

In a series of flashbacks, we meet Rämö, a family man and financial director who seems ordinary at first. He and his wife celebrate Father’s Day with a biker jacket that becomes a symbol of his identity, a token of belonging that stands in stark contrast to the brutal world he’s pulled into. The peace is fragile. When he refuses to invest in a venture brokered by a VALA worker named Kurikka, the pressure from the top grows louder and Rämö’s position at his job dissolves. The consequences ripple outward, leaving him adrift and scrambling for work as the future grows increasingly uncertain.

Digging through VALA’s paperwork, Rämö uncovers a devastating truth: the vaccine is tar-based, designed to bond to skin permanently, and its deployment has already claimed numerous lives. The shock of this revelation collides with the fear that he will become a whistleblower, exposed and punished for speaking out. Pekka Erola senses the threat, and with calculated resolve, he dispatches Rotikka and Lahtaaja to silence Rämö and wipe out his family. The danger is intimate and personal, forcing Rämö to confront the possibility that his family’s safety might depend on his silence—and his complicity.

The assault comes to a brutal crescendo: Rämö’s wife and daughter are killed, and he is left for dead, his body battered and his spirit tested. But fate offers a grim second chance, as he survives and illegally sews tar into his own skin to form a mask. With the biker jacket his family cherished and a pair of gloves as his new armor, the man becomes something new—one who moves unseen through the night as a dark avenger. A mysterious ally named Marla arrives to offer occasional aid, a specter who seems to know more than she reveals.

As Erola’s empire stretches upward, the higher-ups decide to hire a cadre of foreign mercenaries to crush the rising threat. The lineup is formidable: Mike, Radek, Stacy, Julia, and Jimmy. At first, this mercenary group proves too much for the masked vigilante, overpowering him in several encounters, and [Julia] pays the ultimate price. The clash shifts into a broader war, with both sides digging in and the stakes climbing higher by the day.

Meanwhile, a local reporter, Niina Heikkinen, begins to pry VALA’s operations loose from the shadows, intent on exposing the truth behind the company’s sanitized public image. Rotikka steals her notes and takes Niina captive, hoping to silence the story for good. But the vigilante arrives just in time to rescue Niina, and the two of them push back against the mercenaries and the powerful figures who pull their strings, fighting through a web of danger and deceit.

The battle builds to a brutal confrontation with [Lahtaaja], where the line between reality and illusion begins to blur. It is revealed that [Marla] is, in fact, a construct of Rendel’s own psyche—the product of his trauma and imagination—while the real struggle rages on outside his head. In a shocking twist, the vigilante tumbles into a fresh storm of pain as the truth lands: he was the one who was stabbed, not Marla. Regaining his footing, the dark avenger presses on with renewed focus and a merciless resolve, ending the confrontation with Lahtaaja using a brutal, decisive strike.

The escalated conflict reaches a breaking point as Erola’s higher-ups acknowledge that the mission has spiraled beyond their control. Rotikka, who has never felt his father’s love or trust, is given a direct order and turns on his own blood, shooting Pekka Erola. The city’s weary savior then confronts Rotikka in the rain, closing Rotikka’s car trunk on his hands before delivering a final, cruel mercy: syringes of the tar-based vaccine injected into Rotikka’s neck, killing him. As the downpour subsides, Niina steps back into the light, and the vigilante surveys the heart of Mikkeli, aware that the battle is not over and that the higher powers who pulled the strings will likely seek revenge.

In the end, the film leaves us with a chilling sense of unfinished business—a city still under threat, a lone avenger haunted by the past, and a shadowy network that continues to loom just beyond the city’s edges. The lines between justice and vengeance blur, the cost of truth weighs heavily, and the question remains: who really holds the power in a place where a single, masked man can fracture a corrupt empire?

Last updated: October 09, 2025 at 15:56

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Plot questions answered

Rendel Plot Explained: Your Questions Answered

The questions people ask most about Rendel (2017): what happens in the confusing scenes, why the characters do what they do, the twists, hidden details and what the ending means. Each answer contains spoilers.

Q1

Why does Rotikka kill his own father Pekka Erola?

Rotikka was given a direct order by the organization's higher-ups to eliminate Pekka Erola. Despite being Erola's son, Rotikka had never felt his father's love or trust, and the higher-ups saw him as more loyal to the organization than to family ties. This betrayal completes Rotikka's character arc as someone entirely consumed by the criminal enterprise.

Foreshadowing: Earlier scenes establish that Rotikka is the most violent enforcer, completely devoted to the cause with no hesitation in carrying out brutal orders.

  • rotikka
  • pekka erola
  • father son betrayal
  • organization hierarchy
Q2

Is Marla real or just in Rendel's head?

Marla is revealed to be a hallucination, a construct of Rendel's traumatized psyche. During the confrontation with Lahtaaja, it becomes clear that Marla was never physically present; she was a manifestation of his isolation and psychological fracturing after his family's murder. The revelation that he was stabbed, not Marla, confirms she existed only in his mind.

Foreshadowing: Marla appears at moments of high emotional intensity and always seems to know exactly what Rendel needs, hinting at her being a projection rather than a real ally.

  • marla
  • hallucination
  • psychological twist
  • rendel psyche
Q3

How does Rämö transform into Rendel?

After surviving the attack that killed his wife and daughter, Rämö retreats to his cellar where he had hidden a canister of the tar-based vaccine. He illegally sews the tar into his own skin to form a mask, dons the biker jacket his family gave him, and equips gloves, transforming into the masked avenger Rendel. The tar mask both disfigures him and serves as his identity.

Foreshadowing: The Father's Day flashback establishes the biker jacket as a precious symbol of family love, making its adoption as Rendel's armor emotionally significant.

  • ramö
  • rendel transformation
  • tar mask
  • biker jacket
Q4

What is the VALA vaccine and why is it dangerous?

The VALA vaccine, presented as a breakthrough, is actually a tar-based substance designed to bond permanently to skin. It was never properly tested and has already killed numerous people. The entire vaccination program is a front for Pekka Erola's criminal organization to commit crimes while appearing legitimate.

Foreshadowing: VALA's vaccine is introduced as suspiciously successful despite lacking proper testing, foreshadowing its criminal nature.

  • vala vaccine
  • tar based
  • corporate crime
  • untested
Q5

Why does Rotikka kidnap reporter Niina Heikkinen?

Niina Heikkinen was investigating VALA's criminal operations and had gathered evidence and photographs exposing the company's crimes. Rotikka stole her notes and kidnapped her to silence the story and prevent the truth from reaching the public, eliminating the threat of exposure.

Foreshadowing: The timeline shows Niina actively working to expose VALA before her abduction, making her a liability to the criminal organization.

  • niina heikkinen
  • kidnap
  • reporter
  • exposure
Q6

How does Rämö survive the attack on his family?

Rämö is brutally beaten with a barbed-wire bat and left for dead alongside his murdered wife and daughter. However, he survives despite severe injuries. The film doesn't specify exact medical details, but his survival serves as the catalyst for his transformation into Rendel and his descent into violent revenge.

Foreshadowing: The attack is meant to eliminate all witnesses, but Rämö's survival sets up the central revenge narrative.

  • ramö survival
  • attack
  • left for dead
Q7

Which mercenary dies during the war with Rendel?

Julia, one of the foreign mercenaries hired by Erola's organization, is killed during the early clashes with Rendel. Her death marks the first major casualty in the escalating conflict and motivates the continued warfare between the mercenaries and the vigilante.

Foreshadowing: The mercenaries are introduced as a formidable force that initially overwhelms Rendel, establishing them as serious threats before casualties begin.

  • julia mercenary
  • death
  • foreign mercenaries
Q8

How does Rendel kill Rotikka at the end?

Rendel traps Rotikka's hands in a car trunk and injects him with syringes containing the same tar-based vaccine that VALA used. The vaccine, designed to bond permanently to skin, proves lethal when injected directly into the bloodstream, killing Rotikka with his own organization's weapon.

Foreshadowing: The tar vaccine was established as deadly earlier in the film, making this a poetic use of the criminal organization's own weapon against them.

  • rotikka death
  • vaccine injection
  • tar vaccine
Q9

What does the ending of Rendel mean?

The ending leaves the conflict unresolved. Rendel survives and walks away with Niina Heikkinen, but the higher-ups who controlled Erola's organization vow revenge. The city of Mikkeli remains under threat from the shadowy network that was never fully dismantled. The final image suggests Rendel's war is far from over, he has simply traded one battle for an ongoing shadow war.

Foreshadowing: Throughout the film, the organization is portrayed as a hydra, cutting off one head reveals more behind it, setting up the unresolved ending.

  • ending
  • unfinished business
  • higher ups
  • revenge cycle
Q10

Why can't the mercenaries defeat Rendel?

The mercenaries initially overpower Rendel and kill Julia, but he adapts and evolves his tactics. His intimate knowledge of the city, personal motivation, and willingness to use improvised weapons give him advantages. Additionally, Rendel fights without the moral constraints the mercenaries have, making him unpredictable and ultimately more dangerous.

Foreshadowing: The mercenaries are professional killers, but Rendel is driven by personal trauma and rage, giving him an edge in pure determination.

  • mercenaries failure
  • rendel advantage
  • tactics

Movie threads

More Movies Like Rendel, by Mood & Story

Curated lists built around what makes Rendel tick: the same mood, the same kind of story or the same emotional payoff. Each list explains why these movies belong together.

Grim Vigilante Stories Like Rendel

Stories where personal trauma fuels a brutal, morally ambiguous crusade. For viewers who liked the brutal, revenge-driven action of Rendel. This section features movies with similar themes of morally grey vigilantes, corporate or systemic corruption, and emotionally heavy journeys fueled by grief and trauma. If you want more films with high-intensity action and a dark, morally complex tone.

  • vengeful
  • grim
  • brutal
  • oppressive
  • melancholic
  • ruthless
  • Tone: dark, bleak, morally ambiguous
  • Pacing: fast, driven by action and confrontation
Why these movies?

The story pattern: The narrative typically begins with a profound personal tragedy that destroys the protagonist's life, triggering a descent into a violent, single-minded pursuit of revenge. The conflict is often against a powerful, faceless organization, and the story explores the psychological corrosion of the hero as they become consumed by their mission, leading to an uncertain or bleak resolution.

Why they belong together: Movies are grouped here because they share a core DNA of trauma-born vigilantism, a dark and gritty tone, and a focus on the heavy emotional and moral cost of revenge. They deliver a specific experience of high-intensity, often brutal action coupled with profound melancholy and psychological depth.

Rain-Soaked Gritty Action Movies Like Rendel

Action thrillers defined by their wet, oppressive urban landscapes and visceral violence. If you appreciated the oppressive, rain-drenched atmosphere and visceral action of Rendel, explore these similar films. This list features gritty action thrillers and neo-noirs where the wet, dark cityscape enhances the mood of violence and moral collapse, offering a consistent, atmospheric viewing experience.

  • rain-soaked
  • gritty
  • neo-noir
  • atmospheric
  • urban decay
  • visceral
  • Tone: oppressive, tense, melancholic
  • Pacing: steady to fast, with atmospheric build-up
Why these movies?

The story pattern: The narratives in these films are frequently straightforward revenge or crime plots, but their power comes from the immersive atmosphere. The constant rain, neon-lit streets, and gritty textures create a world that feels cold, hostile, and inescapable, which amplifies the tension and brutality of the action sequences and the characters' desperation.

Why they belong together: These movies are united by a shared visual and atmospheric palette. The experience is defined by a specific mood of urban grimness, where the environment is as oppressive as the villains. The similarity is less about plot specifics and more about the consistent, visceral feel of a brutal world rendered in stark, wet darkness.

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Every angle

Rendel (2017) Explained: Plot, Timeline & Characters

Everything about Rendel in one place: what happens in the plot summary, the timeline in chronological order, the characters and meaning and a spoiler-free summary. What's After the Movie adds the cast, box office and post-credit scenes.

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