Nocturnal 
Ted Kaczynski was just 16 when he walked into Harvard as a maths prodigy. Years later, he’d be known as the Unabomber, responsible for a bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others between 1978 and 1995.
That extraordinary and disturbing true story is now the most talked-about thing on Netflix. The streamer’s new drama Unabomber has shot up the UK trending charts, with viewers searching for “movies” and “unabomber movie” to find out how much of it is real.
The film stars Jacob Tremblay as the young Kaczynski, alongside Russell Crowe as Harvard professor Henry Murray, Shailene Woodley as FBI agent Joanne Miller and Annabelle Wallis as Murray’s academic collaborator Christiana Morgan. It’s directed by Janus Metz.
Who was the real Unabomber?
Born in Chicago in 1942, Kaczynski showed exceptional mathematical ability from an early age. He entered Harvard at 16, before earning a master’s degree and a doctorate in mathematics at the University of Michigan. By 25, he was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
He left Berkeley in 1969 and eventually retreated to a remote cabin near Lincoln, Montana, living without electricity or running water. There, he grew increasingly isolated and hostile towards modern technology and industrial society.
In 1978, Kaczynski began the bombing campaign that would span nearly two decades. His first known device was mailed to a professor at Northwestern University, injuring a campus security officer who opened it. In 1979, he planted a bomb aboard an American Airlines flight, causing smoke inhalation injuries and an emergency landing.
The FBI dubbed the case “UNABOM” — short for University and Airline Bombing — before Kaczynski’s identity was known. Sixteen attacks were eventually linked to the case, killing Hugh Scrutton, Thomas Mosser and Gilbert Murray.
In 1995, he sent a roughly 35,000-word manifesto titled “Industrial Society and Its Future” to The Washington Post and The New York Times, demanding it be published. The FBI backed the decision, hoping someone would recognise the writing style.
Fact versus fiction in the Netflix film
The Harvard psychological experiments depicted in the film were real. As reported by MEAWW, citing The Washington Post, student volunteers including Kaczynski took part in gruelling sessions run by Professor Murray and Christiana Morgan, who together devised the Thematic Apperception Test.
But director Janus Metz has been clear that the film takes liberties. He told TIME he doesn’t believe the experiments alone turned Kaczynski into the Unabomber, calling them “likely a piece of the puzzle” rather than the whole explanation. Kaczynski himself reportedly said the experiments didn’t really affect him.
Several elements are outright invented, according to MEAWW: the close, almost familial bond between Kaczynski and Murray shown on screen never existed in reality, a subplot about forged letters is fictional, and a scene where Murray diagnoses him with schizophrenia didn’t happen. Shailene Woodley’s FBI agent Joanne Miller is also a fictional composite character rather than a real investigator.
According to Decider, the film has also been criticised for downplaying the role of Kaczynski’s brother, David, whose recognition of the manifesto’s language reportedly helped point authorities towards the real bomber. Director Metz has said the production didn’t speak to David Kaczynski while making the film.
Speaking to ComingSoon, Tremblay said it was “pretty easy to find the humanity” in the young Kaczynski before his descent, while Wallis described her character Morgan as driven by “academic ego” and a desire to be taken as seriously as her male peers.
Where things stand now
Unabomber is streaming on Netflix now. Ted Kaczynski was eventually caught after a lengthy, costly manhunt and died in 2023.
