Unabomber
The famous nail bomber is given another cinematic analysis in a quite competent Netflix thriller.
Tuition in terror: Russell Crowe and Jacob Tremblay
Image courtesy of Netflix.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
The hunt for the so-called ‘Unabomber’ was the longest and most expensive in FBI history. The shadowy perpetrator of sixteen nail bombs detonated between the years 1978 and 1995 spread fear across the United States. The bomber’s grudge, as detailed in a 35,000-word manifesto, was against the march of technology and the destruction of the natural world. His victims, he believed, were complicit in the change he so abhorred. Were Ted Kaczynski still alive today, he might well have been able to muster a small army of activists sympathetic to his cause.
Kaczynski and his deadly campaign have been dramatised several times, on film, on TV and in book and documentary form, most recently in 2021 in the critically acclaimed biopic Ted K in which he was portrayed by Sharlto Copley. Now we have another film which takes two time frames and explores how the boy, while studying mathematics at Harvard – he was accepted at the university while still only fifteen – developed a distrust of the social order. Considered a mathematical prodigy and exhibiting signs of schizophrenia, among other mental disorders, he was not unlike John Forbes Nash Jr, a schizophrenic, mathematical genius portrayed by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, for which Crowe won an Oscar. It seems fitting, then, that Crowe steps in to play Henry Murray, Kaczynski’s professor of psychology here, an avuncular if intimidating figure in the teenager’s life.
As Kaczynski and Murray develop an irregular liaison, Janus Metz Pedersen’s drama jumps forward to 1995 as FBI agent Joanne Miller (Shailene Woodley) zeroes in on who she thinks the Unabomber is, based on linguistic clues from his manifesto published in The Washington Post and letters to his brother David. She’s struck by the phrase “cool-headed magicians” which appears both in his letters and in his declaration of intent. Joanne’s colleagues think she is merely playing with words and that this is not enough evidence to close their net around Kaczynski. Perhaps inevitably, then, particularly for a Netflix crime thriller, she takes matters into her own hands...
As the 16-year-old Ted Kaczynski, Jacob Tremblay (Room, Wonder, Good Boys) builds on his impressive cv, playing a precocious, introspective teenager who declares that, “I don’t even belong in this stinking body.” His guarded and evolving connection with Murray provides the dramatic backbone of the film, a fascinating premise wrapped in a conventional manhunt thriller. It transpires that Murray is not all he appears to be, which was touched on in an episode of the 2017 Manhunt series, and is this film’s strongest suit. Russell Crowe certainly exudes a perfect blend of professorial authoritarianism and menace, ideal for a man dabbling in deconstructing personality function. Psychology students might well find this part of the film more than intriguing.
Cast: Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay, Annabelle Wallis, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Ludwig, Steven Ogg, Marc Menchaca, Gus Halper, Mark Camacho, David Webster, Bruce Ramsay, Michelle LeBlanc, Veronica Bergr.
Dir Janus Metz Pedersen, Pro Sophie Cassidy, Screenplay Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves, Ph Yves Bélanger, Pro Des Michele Laliberte, Ed Zach Staenberg, Music Marco Beltrami, Costumes Véronique Marchessault, Sound David Esparza, Dialect coach Ryan O'Grady.
2.0 Entertainment/MRC Film-Netflix.
100 mins. USA. 2026. UK and US Rel: 25 September 2026. Cert. 15.
