UNABOMBER Trailer Reveals Jacob Tremblay’s Transformation Into Ted Kaczynski Alongside Russell Crowe

Netflix has unveiled the first trailer for UNABOMBER, a psychological drama inspired by true events that examines Ted Kaczynski’s path from a gifted teenage student at Harvard to the man who would later become one of America’s most notorious criminals.

Directed by Janus Metz, the film stars Jacob Tremblay as the young Kaczynski, with Russell Crowe portraying Harvard psychologist Henry Murray and Shailene Woodley appearing as FBI agent Joanne Miller. Rather than presenting the story entirely chronologically, the film moves between Kaczynski’s formative years and the later investigation to find him.

The trailer moves between tragedy and Kaczynski’s Harvard years

The trailer opens in 1994 with the fatal consequences of a mail bomb before shifting decades into the past.

In 1958, Kaczynski is a teenage prodigy beginning his studies at Harvard University. Played by Tremblay, he appears intellectually gifted but increasingly isolated as he struggles to connect with the people around him and establish his identity.

It was this lesser-known period of Kaczynski’s life that particularly interested screenwriters Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves. Greaves told Netflix that he first became intrigued after hearing about Kaczynski’s time at Harvard and his participation in controversial psychological experiments. Both Greaves and Chalsen had attended Harvard themselves, prompting them to investigate the story further.

Historical accounts confirm that Kaczynski entered Harvard in 1958 and later participated in a study overseen by psychologist Henry A. Murray that examined reactions to psychological stress. The research involved 22 Harvard students and included intensely confrontational interrogations that would not meet modern ethical standards.

Russell Crowe plays psychologist Henry Murray

Central to the film is the relationship between the young Kaczynski and Murray, played by Academy Award winner Russell Crowe.

The trailer depicts Kaczynski becoming involved in Murray’s psychological experiments while already struggling socially at Harvard. Netflix describes the experiments as controversial and presents them as an important element in its exploration of Kaczynski’s troubled early years.

The movie, however, is a drama inspired by true events rather than a documentary. While Kaczynski’s participation in Murray’s research is historical fact, claims about how directly those experiments influenced his later crimes have long been debated.

Director Janus Metz has said that Kaczynski’s Harvard period was one of the elements that most interested him because it revealed a side of the story he had not previously known.

Jacob Tremblay takes on one of his darkest roles

Tremblay rose to prominence as a child actor through films including Room and Wonder, but UNABOMBER places him in considerably darker territory.

Metz said he became convinced Tremblay was right for the role after seeing him in Christian Swegal’s 2025 film Sovereign. According to the director, the actor possessed the combination of intelligence, vulnerability and sensitivity required for his interpretation of the young Kaczynski.

Tremblay has also explained that he deliberately avoided approaching Kaczynski as a caricature. His goal was to portray him as a real young person and capture the sense of alienation that surrounds this period of the character’s life.

Shailene Woodley leads the hunt in the second timeline

Running alongside the Harvard storyline is a later investigation centered on FBI agent Joanne Miller, portrayed by Shailene Woodley.

The two timelines allow the film to examine both the development of the young Kaczynski and the effort to capture the Unabomber decades later. Metz has described the structure as essentially moving between “the making” and “the capture” of the Unabomber.

Woodley joins Tremblay and Crowe in a cast that also includes Annabelle Wallis as Christiana Morgan, Murray’s academic partner and co-director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic, alongside Alexander Ludwig, Steven Ogg and Marc Menchaca.

A psychological drama inspired by true events

Written by Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves, UNABOMBER uses Kaczynski’s early academic life, his involvement in psychological research and the subsequent FBI investigation to build a portrait of ambition, alienation and escalating violence.

The newly released trailer makes clear that the film is interested not only in the criminal investigation, but also in the years before Kaczynski became infamous — particularly the experiences surrounding his unusually young arrival at Harvard.

Netflix categorizes the 2026 film as a psychological and suspenseful drama-thriller based on real life.

UNABOMBER arrives on Netflix on September 25, 2026.