The poster for the upcoming Netflix movie Unabomber might seem a little confusing at first: Hold up, is that Russell Crowe’s face front and center? Surely the 2026 version of Russell Crowe (or, for that matter, just about any version of Crowe) isn’t the right fit to play Ted Kaczynski, the domestic terrorist who killed multiple people through a prolonged letter-bombing campaign?
No worries: Crowe is not, in fact, playing Ted Kaczynski in the upcoming movie. That job falls to Jacob Tremblay — yes, the kid from Room, Wonder, and Good Boys is all grown up and committing acts of terrorism! If this just raises further questions about just what exactly the Netflix Unabomber movie is, fear not: We have some answers for you ahead of its September 25th release.
Unabomber Movie on Netflix Cast Info:
Tremblay plays Ted Kaczynski in two timelines: One set during his Harvard days, and the other during the manhunt for him several decades later. Kaczynski attended Harvard at a young age, entering the famed college as a prodigious math scholar at just 16, back in 1958; he graduated in 1962. He was apprehended in 1996.
Russell Crowe’s character, meanwhile, is a real-life figure from Kaczynski’s Harvard years: Henry Murray, a professor of psychology who became known in part for his human experiments in stress reactions, which Kaczynski participated in during his time there. Though Kaczynski was reluctant to draw connections between those potentially unethical experiments and his subsequent actions, based on the trailer, the movie appears to be implying that the experiments contributed to a fraying of Kaczynski’s mental health. Annabelle Wallis plays Christiana Morgan, co-director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic in the 1960s, and presumably part of this storyline as well.
In the later timeline, Shailene Woodley will play FBI agent Joanne Miller — a fictional creation who is tracking Kaczynski in 1994. (Often these kinds of procedures use a fictional character as a composite/stand-in for the work of many investigators to streamline the story into a less complicated narrative.) From the trailer, it looks like Kaczynski will remain a more elusive figure in this half of the story, presumably rooted largely in Woodley’s character’s point of view. Her character appears similar to the one she played in the fictional procedural thriller To Catch a Killer. (It’s pretty good!)
The film also stars Alexander Ludwig, Steven Ogg, and Marc Menchaca.
Who Directed Unabomber?
The director of the Netflix Unabomber project is Janus Metz Pedersen. He has a background in documentaries, which may serve him well for this fact-based story. His most recent film is All the Old Knives, an espionage thriller starring Chris Pine that came out in 2022. (It’s pretty good!)
He also directed three episodes from the second season of Andor, the beloved Star Wars series. (It’s more than pretty good!)
Is Unabomber a Theatrical Release?
No. Like most of Netflix’s movies, Unabomber will not have an exclusive theatrical release before it debuts on the streaming service. Though some of their fall releases receive a simultaneous theatrical release in a few cities, often for awards qualification, any small number of Unabomber showtimes have not yet been announced.
When Does The Unabomber Movie Come Out on Netflix?
The movie will be on Netflix on Friday, September 25th. This means it will be available at 12:01AM PST, and 3:01AM EST.
Where is the Unabomber Trailer?
Why, it’s right here!
Unabomber premieres Friday, September 25 on Netflix.
