Netflix has just announced the upcoming film Unabomber, directed by Janus Metz, and co-written by Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves. It stars Jacob Tremblay as a young Ted Kaczynski, the man who would go on to become the infamous Unabomber.
From 1978 to 1995, Kaczynski helmed a horrific mail bombing campaign that killed 3 and injured 23. Netflix’s Unabomber will explore his time at Harvard. Focusing heavily on him being the subject of psychological experiments by Professor Henry Murray (Russell Crowe).
“UNABOMBER is a story about a young man who feels increasingly disenfranchised by society and decides to take up violence as a means of revenge,” Metz tells Tudum. “We crosscut between two timelines, roughly speaking: the making of the Unabomber and the capture of the Unabomber.”
“I was fascinated by the fact that the hunt for the Unabomber was the FBI’s longest and most expensive operation to date. But what really drew me in was the story about Ted Kaczynski’s years at Harvard when he was a young math student. This was a side to the story I didn’t know about; it helps uncover a very dark chapter in American history,” he adds.
Tremblay on The Role
“I really wanted to make sure I went into this role playing him as a real person,” Tremblay says. “I wanted him to feel real.” He continues, “I drew from my own personal experiences of what it feels like to be involved in a career where I’m surrounded by a lot of people who are older than me, and that feeling of not fitting in a bit.”
It’s always a fine line with true crime on how much you want to humanize criminals. Many go too far and make them sympathetic, or worse, glamorize them and their actions. While understanding what drives people to commit horrific violence against each other is important. The eventual victim(s) should always have their likeness and stories treated with respect. The genre is always controversial to begin with but doubly so when blending fact and fiction.
Tremblay and Crowe star alongside Shailene Woodley, Annabelle Wallis, Alexander Ludwig, Steven Ogg, and Marc Menchaca.
Unabomber premieres on Netflix on September 25, 2026.
