Russell Crowe’s New Netflix Crime Thriller Has the Chilling DNA of Zodiac and Good Will Hunting
Netflix’s upcoming Unabomber takes a disturbing look at Ted Kaczynski, tracing the path from his years as a gifted young mathematician to his eventual exposure as one of the most notorious domestic terrorists in American history.
Starring Russell Crowe as Harvard psychologist Henry Murray and Jacob Tremblay as a young Kaczynski, the biographical thriller arrives on Netflix September 25, 2026. Directed by Janus Metz Pedersen, who previously directed the true-story tennis drama Borg vs McEnroe, the film examines both Kaczynski’s intellectual promise and the FBI investigation that ultimately brought his decades-long bombing campaign to an end.
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What makes the premise especially unsettling is the film’s focus on the relationship between Kaczynski and Murray. The story explores the controversial psychological experiments Kaczynski underwent at Harvard, beginning when he was a teenager, and considers how those experiences may have shaped the person he later became.
That gives Unabomber an unusual connection to Good Will Hunting. At the same time, its investigation into Kaczynski’s crimes and eventual capture recalls David Fincher’s Zodiac. The combination makes Netflix’s film one of the darker true-crime dramas arriving in 2026.
Unabomber Connects Kaczynski’s Harvard Years to His Capture
The film unfolds across two timelines.
One follows Kaczynski during his formative years, when he was already demonstrating extraordinary mathematical ability as a young Harvard student. The other moves forward to the investigation surrounding the Unabomber and the effort to identify and capture him.
Netflix describes the film as a story about Kaczynski’s transformation from a Harvard prodigy into the man behind the Unabomber attacks. The movie also follows FBI agent Joanne Miller, played by Shailene Woodley, as the investigation begins to close in on him.
This approach separates Unabomber from earlier screen portrayals of Kaczynski. The 2017 film Ted K: The Unabomber, for example, focused more directly on his bombing campaign and the radical philosophy he used to rationalize his actions.
Netflix’s film instead spends significant time examining the person Kaczynski was before he became the Unabomber. His adolescence, academic career and experiences at Harvard are placed alongside the later federal investigation.
That structure allows the movie to explore two very different versions of the same man: the brilliant young mathematician and the terrorist he eventually became.
Russell Crowe’s Henry Murray Is Central to the Story
The early part of Kaczynski’s story revolves heavily around Henry Murray, played by Crowe.
When Kaczynski was 17, he became involved in psychological experiments conducted by Murray. The film portrays these experiences as deeply damaging, making Murray a crucial figure in its attempt to understand Kaczynski’s development.
The premise creates an obvious parallel with Good Will Hunting, the Oscar-winning coming-of-age drama written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
Kaczynski’s real-life story famously influenced elements of Good Will Hunting. The connection is even acknowledged within the film itself, when psychologist Sean Maguire discusses the danger of pushing a gifted young person too hard in pursuit of academic achievement and references Kaczynski.
The parallel is particularly striking because both stories involve highly gifted young men whose intellectual abilities become a source of pressure. But where Good Will Hunting ultimately turns toward healing and personal connection, Unabomber examines a much more disturbing trajectory.
Crowe’s presence also signals how important Murray is to the film. Netflix’s first-look material places the actor prominently alongside Tremblay, while the official synopsis identifies Murray’s controversial psychological experiments as a key part of Kaczynski’s transformation.
The film does not simply present Kaczynski as a criminal who appeared out of nowhere. Instead, it examines the circumstances surrounding his early life and asks how his experiences might have contributed to the person he became.
That distinction is important because Kaczynski himself rejected the idea that Murray’s experiments caused the terrorism he later committed. The movie’s suggestion that there may be a connection is therefore presented as an interpretation of his life rather than an established fact.
The Investigation Has Shades of Zodiac
The other half of Unabomber has a very different tone.
As the film moves into the investigation of Kaczynski, the story becomes a crime thriller centered on the search for a killer whose identity remains hidden.
One of the investigation’s major breakthroughs comes when The New York Times receives a letter demanding that the newspaper publish an essay explaining and justifying the bombing campaign.
That correspondence gives the film another clear connection to Zodiac. David Fincher’s 2007 thriller also uses written communication between a killer and a major newspaper as part of its investigation.
In Unabomber, however, the newspaper correspondence is tied directly to the larger question of who Kaczynski is and how investigators can identify him.
The two timelines therefore work toward the same destination from opposite directions. The earlier story examines how Kaczynski developed, while the later story follows the effort to uncover the man responsible for the crimes.
One of Netflix’s Darker True-Crime Dramas
True-crime stories are naturally drawn to disturbing subject matter, but Unabomber appears to take an especially uncomfortable route.
The film combines the calculated murder of innocent people with the intellectual framework Kaczynski developed to justify his actions. That contrast between extreme violence and the writings of a highly intelligent mathematician gives the story much of its psychological tension.
Yet the most troubling aspect may be the film’s treatment of Kaczynski’s youth.
By spending so much time with him before the bombing campaign, Unabomber asks viewers to look at the person behind the crimes and consider the experiences that preceded them. The story does not excuse his actions, but it does attempt to examine how a gifted young man could eventually become one of the most infamous criminals in modern American history.
That makes the film more complicated than a straightforward manhunt thriller.
Jacob Tremblay’s portrayal is designed around that complexity as well. Netflix has described the character as a young man increasingly alienated from the society around him before eventually turning to violence. The film’s two timelines place that isolation alongside the FBI investigation that would ultimately lead to his capture.
The result is a crime story built around both cause and consequence. One timeline asks what happened to Kaczynski before the world knew his name. The other follows the painstaking investigation that eventually revealed the identity of the Unabomber.
Whether the film’s interpretation of Kaczynski’s formative experiences is convincing remains to be seen. What is clear is that Unabomber is approaching one of the most infamous criminal cases in American history from a darker and more psychologically focused angle than many previous portrayals.
Unabomber premieres on Netflix on September 25, 2026.