The story of Ted Kaczynski, the domestic terrorist better known as the Unabomber, has been picked apart on screen for decades. His bombing campaign, the extraordinary hunt to identify him, his years of isolation in Montana and the ideas behind his rejection of modern technology have fuelled everything from crime dramas to documentaries and some seriously unconventional filmmaking.

Interest has surged again with Unabomber, the new Netflix drama starring Jacob Tremblay, Russell Crowe and Shailene Woodley. But that’s only the latest in a long line of screen treatments of the case.

According to the FBI, Kaczynski carried out 16 bombings between 1978 and 1995, killing three people and injuring 23 before his arrest in Montana in 1996. If you’re looking to dig further into the case, here are eight films, documentaries and TV productions worth seeking out.

1. Manhunt: Unabomber (2017)

If you’re most interested in the hunt itself, Manhunt: Unabomber is an easy place to start. Paul Bettany plays Kaczynski, while Sam Worthington stars as FBI profiler Jim “Fitz” Fitzgerald in the eight-part drama.

A large part of the series revolves around language, with Fitzgerald becoming increasingly convinced that the Unabomber’s choice of words could reveal something about the person investigators were looking for. That gives Manhunt the feel of a puzzle as much as a character study, while the manifesto, Kaczynski’s family and the sprawling investigation all get room to breathe.

There are dramatic liberties, so it shouldn’t be treated as a documentary. But as a crime procedural built around one of America’s most difficult manhunts, it remains one of the more compelling screen versions of the case.

2. Ted K (2021)

Ted K takes almost the opposite approach. Instead of spending much time with agents and evidence boards, director Tony Stone stays close to Kaczynski during his isolated years in Montana, with Sharlto Copley giving an intense performance as his anger towards technology, industrialisation and changes to the wilderness around him becomes increasingly destructive.

The filmmakers went unusually far in recreating that world. The University of Montana notes that production took place on the property where Kaczynski had lived, with a replica of his tiny cabin constructed for filming.

That physical isolation becomes a major part of the movie’s mood. The result is stranger, rougher and more claustrophobic than the slicker true-crime treatments, with little interest in turning the story into a conventional FBI thriller.

3. Unabomber: In His Own Words (2020)

For anyone wanting to move away from dramatisation, Unabomber: In His Own Words offers a much more direct route to the real people involved. The four-part documentary uses Kaczynski’s own writings and rare interview material, but crucially, his isn’t the only voice we hear.

His brother David Kaczynski and sister-in-law Linda Patrik appear, along with bombing survivor Gary Wright, investigators and others connected to the case. That gives the series a different weight from the scripted versions, particularly when it turns to the family members forced to consider the possibility that someone they knew could be the person America had spent years hunting.

The series covers the bombings, the manifesto, the investigation and the legal aftermath, making it one of the more substantial documentary treatments for viewers who want the case without actors filling in the gaps.

4. Unabomber: The True Story (1996)

This television movie has one particularly fascinating thing going for it: it was released in 1996, the very same year Kaczynski was arrested.

Long before Saw made him a horror icon, Tobin Bell played Kaczynski, with Dean Stockwell as postal inspector Ben Jeffries and Robert Hays as Kaczynski’s brother David. The film follows the investigation and the growing suspicions within Kaczynski’s family that ultimately helped point authorities in his direction.

Its proximity to the real events is now part of the appeal. Modern productions have decades of books, interviews and retrospective analysis to draw from; this one was dramatising the story almost immediately after the man behind it had finally been identified.

That makes it both a crime drama and a curious snapshot of how the story was being processed in popular culture at the time. The film is currently available through services including Tubi in Australia.

5. The Net (2003)

The Net, also known as Das Netz, heads well outside standard true-crime territory. German filmmaker Lutz Dammbeck doesn’t simply retell the Unabomber case, instead using Kaczynski as one point in a much broader examination of technology, cybernetics, psychology, counterculture and the development of the digital world.

That means viewers looking for a tidy chronological account of bombs, suspects and FBI leads may find themselves somewhere very different. Dammbeck is more interested in the technological society Kaczynski violently rejected, and in the intellectual and cultural movements developing around it, than in recreating the investigation itself.

As the ZKM Center for Art and Media describes it, the film casts a much wider net across the people and ideas involved in the development of modern technological systems. For viewers interested in the ideas surrounding the case rather than only the manhunt, it offers a decidedly different way in.

6. Stemple Pass (2012)

If The Net is unconventional, Stemple Pass pushes even further away from the familiar true-crime format. Experimental filmmaker James Benning built a replica of Kaczynski’s cabin and filmed it across four seasons, creating a 121-minute work made up of four long landscape shots while Benning reads selections from Kaczynski’s journals, coded notebooks and other writings.

There are no actors chasing suspects, no dramatic recreations and no ominous score guiding the audience through the story. The film is deliberately slow and austere, asking viewers to sit with the landscape, isolation and words connected to Kaczynski rather than packaging them into a conventional thriller.

It’s certainly not going to be everyone’s idea of an evening in front of the television, but that’s also what makes it one of the most distinctive productions here. Film at Lincoln Center has more on Benning’s unusual approach and the material incorporated into the soundtrack.

7. In the Kingdom of the Unabomber (2000)

Errol Morris takes the story somewhere very different in this 24-minute episode of his documentary series First Person. Rather than retelling the bombings or the FBI investigation, Morris sits down with psychologist and writer Gary Greenberg, who began corresponding with Kaczynski after his arrest.

Greenberg initially reached out while hoping to interview Kaczynski, but the correspondence soon became tangled up in much bigger questions about access, ambition and who gets to tell the story of someone who has become notorious.

It’s a much smaller piece than the sprawling dramas and documentaries elsewhere on this list, but that’s part of its appeal. Morris isn’t trying to explain the entire Unabomber case; he’s looking at the strange fascination that continued to surround Kaczynski once the manhunt was over. The New Zealand International Film Festival included the episode among its selections from Morris’ First Person series.

8. The FBI Files: The Unabomber (1999)

For something far more straightforward, documentary series The FBI Files tackled the case in an early episode devoted to the years-long effort to identify the Unabomber.

Using interviews and dramatic recreations, the episode walks through the investigation, the publication of Kaczynski’s manifesto and the evidence that finally brought agents to his Montana cabin. It has the direct, procedural style of late-’90s true-crime television, with the emphasis firmly on how investigators moved from a seemingly invisible suspect to a breakthrough.

It’s also a much smaller commitment than most of the titles above, and the full episode is available to watch above.

Where to Start

For a dramatised deep dive into the investigation, Manhunt: Unabomber is an easy place to begin, while Unabomber: In His Own Words is a stronger choice for viewers who want to hear directly from people connected to the case. Ted K offers something darker and more claustrophobic, while The Net and Stemple Pass are better suited to anyone already familiar with the broad story and looking for something less conventional.

Streaming availability varies by country and can change over time.

Also Check Out:

‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’: 10 Biggest Differences Between the Show and Real Life