Netflix has become the home of the true crime documentary. Every domestic violence incident, mysterious disappearance or mass murder seems to have been covered in some form, so when Netflix puts out a feature film about a notorious crime case, we sit up and pay attention. And when you throw in an Oscar winner and a child acting prodigy in his latest grown-up role, it’s something to add to the calendar.
Netflix’s latest crime thriller isn’t simply interested in the FBI hunt that eventually brought Ted Kaczynski down. It goes much further back, asking how a 16-year-old mathematical prodigy attending Harvard ended up becoming one of America’s most notorious killers. Russell Crowe (Gladiator) stars alongside Jacob Tremblay (Sovereign) in Unabomber, which officially arrives on Netflix tomorrow. Directed by Janus Metz (Borg vs. McEnroe), the R-rated crime thriller runs around 100 minutes and moves between two periods of Kaczynski’s life: his disturbing experiences as a young Harvard student and the FBI investigation attempting to identify and capture him decades later.
Tremblay plays the young Kaczynski, who entered Harvard at only 16 and became involved in controversial psychological experiments conducted by Professor Henry Murray, played by Crowe. The other side of the story follows FBI agent Joanne Miller as investigators attempt to hunt down the Unabomber, with the two timelines gradually building a portrait of how an isolated mathematical prodigy eventually turned to violence.
Metz has been careful not to describe the movie as an attempt to excuse Kaczynski’s crimes. Instead, he sees it as examining the radicalization of a young man who increasingly separates himself from the society around him. Kaczynski’s real bombing campaign killed three people and injured 23 others.
“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. We crosscut between two timelines, roughly speaking: the making of the Unabomber and the capture of the Unabomber.”
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
Who Stars in ‘Unabomber’?
Jacob Tremblay in UnabomberImage via Netflix
Russell Crowe in UnabomberImage via Netflix
Shailene Woodley in UnabomberImage via Netflix
Tremblay stars as Ted Kaczynski, with Crowe playing Professor Henry Murray and Shailene Woodley (Divergent) as FBI agent Joanne Miller. Annabelle Wallis (Malignant) plays Christiana Morgan, Murray’s academic partner and co-director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic, while Alexander Ludwig (Vikings), Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead), and Marc Menchaca (Ozark) round out the principal ensemble.
It’s Tremblay rather than Crowe who has the difficult job of portraying Kaczynski himself. The actor has said he knew relatively little about the domestic terrorist’s early life before reading the screenplay, including the fact that he had attended Harvard as a teenage mathematical prodigy. Rather than approaching Kaczynski as a ready-made monster, Tremblay wanted his younger incarnation to feel recognizably human.
“I really wanted to make sure I went into this role playing him as a real person. I wanted him to feel real. 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.”
Unabomber premieres September 25 exclusively on Netflix.
Image via Netflix
Image via Netflix
Image via Netflix
