Ted Kaczynski was 16 when he entered Harvard University as a mathematics prodigy. Years later, he would become known as the Unabomber, after carrying out a bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others between 1978 and 1995. Netflix’s Unabomber directed by Janus Metz, explores Kaczynski’s life before and during the events that led to his capture.
Jacob Tremblay plays the younger Kaczynski, while Russell Crowe portrays Harvard professor Henry Murray, Shailene Woodley plays FBI agent Joanne Miller and Annabelle Wallis portrays Christiana Morgan, Murray’s academic collaborator. He entered Harvard at 16 before continuing his studies at the University of Michigan, where he earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in mathematics. At 25, he became a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
But he left the university in 1969 and eventually moved to a remote cabin near Lincoln, Mont., where he lived without electricity or running water. Kaczynski became increasingly isolated from society. He spent much of his time reading, hunting and growing plants, while developing increasingly strong opposition to modern technology and industrial society.
In 1978, Kaczynski began the bombing campaign that would eventually span nearly two decades. His first known attack involved a homemade device mailed to a professor at Northwestern University. It exploded when opened by a campus security officer, causing minor injuries.
In November 1979, Kaczynski placed a device aboard an American Airlines flight, causing smoke inhalation injuries and forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. Over the years, his targets included universities, airlines and people he associated with technology and the modern industrial system. The FBI used the case identifier UNABOM, short for “University and Airline Bombing,” before Kaczynski’s identity was known.
The media later used it to name him the “Unabomber.” Between 1978 and 1995, 16 attacks were linked to the case, killing Hugh Scrutton, Thomas Mosser and Gilbert Murray and injuring 23 people. Kaczynski’s identity remained a mystery for years. That changed in 1995, when he sent a lengthy manifesto titled “Industrial Society and Its Future” to The Washington Post and The New York Times and demanded that it be published.
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