Most people know Ted Kaczynski as the bearded recluse behind a deadly bombing campaign. Netflix‘s upcoming Unabomber is heading much further back. The official trailer has arrived for the dramatic thriller, with Jacob Tremblay playing the brilliant young Harvard student who would eventually become one of America’s most notorious domestic terrorists. Watch the trailer above and dive into what you need to know below.

Before the Unabomber, There Was a 16-Year-Old Harvard Prodigy

The trailer opens in 1994 with the aftermath of a deadly mail bombing before winding the clock back to 1958. Ted is just 16 years old, extremely intelligent and already struggling to fit in.

That’s where Harvard psychologist Henry Murray, played by Russell Crowe, enters the picture. He takes an interest in the teenager and eventually recruits him for a series of psychological experiments.

The film moves between Kaczynski’s younger years and the investigation that ultimately led to his capture, with Shailene Woodley playing fictional FBI agent Joanne Miller.

Annabelle Wallis stars as Murray’s colleague Christiana Morgan, while Alexander Ludwig, Steven Ogg and Marc Menchaca also feature. Janus Metz, whose credits include Borg vs McEnroe and All the Old Knives, directs from a screenplay by Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves.

Speaking with Netflix’s Tudum, Greaves said the idea took hold after hearing an NPR segment about Kaczynski attending Harvard and undergoing controversial psychological experiments.

“I brought it to Sam, and we just started digging in and running with it,” Greaves said. Having both attended Harvard themselves only added to the fascination.

Metz was similarly surprised by this period of Kaczynski’s life. “This was a side to the story I didn’t know about; it helps uncover a very dark chapter in American history,” he told Tudum.

Those Disturbing Harvard Experiments Really Happened

Kaczynski really did enter Harvard at just 16 and, beginning in 1959, participated in a controversial study overseen by Murray.

The study involved 22 undergraduates who were asked to write detailed essays setting out their beliefs, values and personal philosophies. They were then subjected to aggressive confrontations in which those beliefs were attacked while researchers monitored their responses.

Participants sat beneath bright lights and were connected to electrodes as they faced deliberately hostile questioning. Kaczynski remained involved in Murray’s broader research programme for several years.

Murray’s own background has made the story even more intriguing. During World War II, he worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the intelligence organisation that preceded the CIA, helping assess recruits and study responses to psychological stress.

His Harvard work also unfolded during the same Cold War period as the CIA’s notorious MKUltra programme, which explored interrogation, drugs and behavioural manipulation. Murray’s intelligence connections and the nature of the experiments have fuelled theories for decades about possible links between his research and MKUltra.

Jacob Tremblay Steps Into Much Darker Territory

Metz said he became convinced Tremblay was right for the role after seeing him in 2025 thriller Sovereign, pointing to the young actor’s sensitivity, vulnerability and intelligence as particularly suited to Kaczynski’s Harvard years.

For Tremblay, who broke through opposite Brie Larson in 2015 drama Room, the role is a significant change of pace.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, the 19-year-old said the unexpected nature of the casting was part of what attracted him.

“That’s the interesting part: I think me, as well as many other people, just wouldn’t see me as that kind of character,” Tremblay said.

He said one element of Kaczynski’s early life he could connect with was being placed in an adult environment at a very young age. Tremblay was only eight when Room put him firmly on Hollywood’s radar, although he stressed that his own experience was vastly different, having grown up surrounded by people who looked after him.

Tremblay also drew on his genuine admiration for Crowe when playing Ted’s initial respect for Murray. Crowe returned the praise, telling Entertainment Weekly that his young co-star came exceptionally prepared and displayed an intellectual and emotional maturity beyond his years.

From Mathematics Prodigy to the Unabomber

Kaczynski went on to earn a doctorate in mathematics and became an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, before abandoning academia and eventually retreating to a small cabin in rural Montana.

Between 1978 and 1995, he mailed or planted 16 bombs targeting people associated with universities, airlines and technology-related fields. Three people were killed and 23 were injured.

The FBI investigation was dubbed UNABOM, a name derived from the university and airline bombing targets involved in the case. It would eventually give Kaczynski the nickname that followed him forever.

The case finally began to crack after his 35,000-word manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future, was published in 1995. Kaczynski’s brother David recognised similarities between the manifesto and Ted’s previous writings and contacted authorities. Kaczynski was arrested at his Montana cabin in April 1996 and later pleaded guilty, receiving life imprisonment without parole. Kaczynski died by suicide in federal prison in 2023 at the age of 81.

Unabomber Release Date

Unabomber premieres on Netflix on September 25, 2026.

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