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“Unabomber,” Netflix’s new true-crime drama starring Russell Crowe and Jacob Tremblay, has quickly climbed to the top of the streaming service’s movie charts after its Sept. 25, 2026, debut.

Directed by Janus Metz, the film dramatizes the life of Ted Kaczynski, the Harvard-trained mathematician who became known as the Unabomber. He carried out a mail-bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others between 1978 and 1995. Netflix describes the movie as a drama inspired by true events.

The film stars Tremblay as a young Kaczynski, Crowe as Harvard psychology professor Henry Murray and Shailene Woodley as FBI agent Joanne Miller. Annabelle Wallis plays Christiana Morgan, Murray's academic partner.

According to current Netflix chart data reported after the film's release, “Unabomber” reached No. 1 on the service's worldwide movie chart within days of its debut.

The real Unabomber case

Kaczynski's criminal campaign began in 1978 and continued for nearly two decades. He targeted people associated with universities, airlines and technology-related institutions, frequently using homemade bombs sent through the mail or left at targeted locations.

The campaign became one of the longest and most expensive investigations in FBI history.

Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others before his arrest in April 1996 at his remote cabin in Montana. His identity became known after his brother, David Kaczynski, recognized similarities between the language of the Unabomber's writings and material written by Ted.

David and his wife, Linda Patrik, ultimately contacted authorities. Linguistic analysis of the Unabomber's manifesto and other writings became an important component of the investigation that led to Kaczynski's arrest.

Kaczynski pleaded guilty in 1998 and received multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.

He died in federal custody in 2023 at age 81.

The Unabomber in Harvard 

One of the central storylines in Netflix's “Unabomber” focuses on Kaczynski's time at Harvard University.

Kaczynski entered Harvard at 16 and later participated in controversial psychological experiments conducted under Murray. The film uses those experiences as a major part of its explanation of Kaczynski's development.

Netflix says the movie moves between two periods: Kaczynski's years as a young Harvard student and the FBI investigation that eventually resulted in his capture.

The historical record surrounding Murray's experiments has been the subject of continuing discussion. The movie uses the experiments as part of a dramatic narrative about Kaczynski's intellectual and psychological development, but it does not establish that the experiments caused his later crimes.

Recent fact-checking of the movie has also noted that some of the film's connections between Kaczynski's Harvard experience and his later crimes are dramatized.

Russell Crowe plays Henry Murray

Crowe portrays Murray, the Harvard psychologist whose experiments with Kaczynski form one of the film's central storylines.

The movie presents Murray as an influential professor whose interactions with the young Kaczynski become increasingly consequential.

Crowe's performance is paired with Tremblay's portrayal of Kaczynski during his teenage years.

Netflix says Metz was particularly interested in the contrast between the young Kaczynski's development and the later FBI effort to find the Unabomber.

The director said the film was designed around two timelines, allowing the audience to move between Kaczynski's Harvard years and the investigation that culminated in his arrest.

The movie takes creative liberties

Although “Unabomber” is based on documented events, it is not a documentary.

One of the most significant fictional elements is Woodley's character, FBI agent Joanne Miller. The character was created for the movie and does not represent a single real FBI agent who led the Unabomber investigation.

The movie also compresses events and creates dramatic relationships that are not established in the historical record.

In the real investigation, Kaczynski's brother played a crucial role in identifying him, while the FBI investigation involved numerous agents and investigators.

That distinction is particularly important for viewers approaching the movie as true crime. The film draws from the historical case but uses fictionalized characters and reconstructed scenes to tell its story.

There is a long-running true-crime fascination With the Unabomber

The release of “Unabomber” comes as streaming services continue to produce films, documentaries and series based on notorious criminals and historical crimes.

Netflix has previously built audiences around real-life crime stories, ranging from documentaries to dramatized productions.

“Unabomber” takes a somewhat different approach by combining the historical case with a psychological drama about Kaczynski's early life and the investigators who eventually identified him.

The movie's rapid rise on Netflix's movie chart illustrates the continuing audience interest in stories about notorious criminal cases.

What happened to Ted Kaczynski?

After his arrest in 1996, Kaczynski was charged with numerous federal offenses related to the bombing campaign.

He initially faced the possibility of the death penalty but ultimately pleaded guilty in 1998. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Kaczynski spent more than two decades in federal custody. He died in June 2023 while serving his sentence.

His case remains the subject of books, documentaries, podcasts and dramatizations, with Netflix's “Unabomber” providing the latest fictionalized interpretation of the events.

Where to watch the Unabomber

“Unabomber” began streaming on Netflix on Sept. 25, 2026.

The film has a reported runtime of 1 hour and 40 minutes and is rated R. Netflix describes it as a drama inspired by true events.

Read more: SlashFilm: Russell Crowe's 100-Minute True Crime Thriller Is Officially Netflix's Biggest Streaming Hit

Official Netflix information: Netflix Tudum: UNABOMBER — Cast, Release Date and Plot

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