A new angle on one of America's most famous manhunts
Netflix's Unabomber dropped September 25, and it's taking a different route into a story that's already been told several times before. Rather than centering the years-long FBI manhunt, director Janus Metz builds the film around Ted Kaczynski's time as a teenage math prodigy at Harvard — and specifically, his participation in a controversial series of psychological experiments run by professor Henry Murray.
The film runs about 100 minutes and cuts between two timelines: Kaczynski at 16, entering Harvard in the late 1950s, and the 1996 investigation that eventually led to his capture, seen through the eyes of a fictionalized FBI agent.
Who's in it
Jacob Tremblay plays the young Kaczynski, with Michael Laurence taking over as the older, isolated version hiding out in his Montana cabin. Russell Crowe plays Henry Murray, the Harvard psychologist whose relationship with Kaczynski is described by Metz as the emotional center of the film. Shailene Woodley plays Joanne Miller, the FBI agent driving the manhunt storyline, alongside Annabelle Wallis, Alexander Ludwig, and Steven Ogg in supporting roles.
Tremblay has said he didn't know much about Kaczynski's Harvard years going in, which is part of why the project caught his interest — it's a side of the story that hasn't gotten nearly as much screen time as the manhunt itself.
The real history behind the Murray experiments
The Murray experiments are genuinely documented history, not a screenwriting invention. As a Harvard undergraduate, Kaczynski really was a subject in a study Murray ran that involved deliberately hostile, high-pressure debate sessions designed to test how participants handled psychological stress.
Where the film gets more careful is in how much weight it puts on that experience as an explanation. Metz has said directly that he doesn't believe the Murray experiments alone turned Kaczynski into the Unabomber — pointing instead to Kaczynski's own journals, which describe a deeper sense of rejection and desire for revenge. Kaczynski himself later claimed the experiments hadn't significantly affected him, and the film doesn't try to argue otherwise so much as sit inside that ambiguity.
A story the director sees as unfortunately current
Metz has pointed to an angle that gives the film a reason to exist now, decades after Kaczynski's arrest: he's argued that parts of Kaczynski's writing anticipated present-day anxieties about AI and technology's grip on daily life, while being careful to add that recognizing that doesn't excuse what Kaczynski actually did. It's a framing choice — treating the manifesto's underlying fears as worth examining separately from the violence used to spread them — that several reviews have picked up on, for better or worse.
How critics are actually responding
The reception so far has been mixed to unfavorable. Variety's review called it a fairly hokey, formulaic procedural despite the more interesting psychological material, and other outlets have echoed that the Harvard-era character study is stronger than the manhunt half of the film, which leans on more familiar true-crime beats.
Tremblay's performance has drawn some of the more positive notice — several reviewers pointed to his ability to make young Kaczynski sympathetic without excusing him, a tension that critics seem to agree is the most interesting thing the film has going for it, even where the film as a whole falls short of fully capitalizing on it.
Should you watch it?
If you're mainly curious about the mechanics of the manhunt or the specifics of Kaczynski's crimes, this isn't that film — it deliberately leaves a lot of that on the cutting room floor in favor of the psychological backstory. If you're more interested in the question of what turns an isolated, brilliant teenager into someone capable of what Kaczynski did, and you're fine with a film that raises that question without fully answering it, Unabomber is streaming now on Netflix.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I watch Unabomber?
Unabomber is streaming exclusively on Netflix, released September 25, 2026.
Who plays Ted Kaczynski in Unabomber?
Jacob Tremblay plays the young Ted Kaczynski during his Harvard years, while Michael Laurence plays the older Kaczynski during the 1996 manhunt storyline.
Is Unabomber based on a true story?
Yes, though Netflix presents it as a dramatization rather than a documentary. It's grounded in documented events, including Kaczynski's real participation in Henry Murray's Harvard psychological experiments, but takes creative liberties in areas where the historical record is incomplete.
What is Unabomber about?
The film follows Ted Kaczynski's transformation from a Harvard math prodigy, including his time as a subject in controversial psychological experiments, alongside the later FBI investigation that led to his capture as the Unabomber.
Who directed Unabomber?
Janus Metz directed the film from a screenplay by Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves.
