Is ‘Unabomber’ based on a true story? Inside the disturbing experiments in Russell Crowe’s new movie
For almost 20 years, the FBI put the elusive Ted Kaczynski, the “Unabomber,” on its list of the most wanted criminals in the United States. Before that, he was a 16-year-old math prodigy who walked into Harvard without any idea of the psychological experiment in store for him. The new Netflix movie ‘Unabomber,’ starring Russell Crowe and Jacob Tremblay, dramatizes that journey from campus to captured bomber and has got people wondering just how much was true. The movie is based on a true story, but not all of it. Netflix describes the film as a drama “inspired by true events” and not based on fact, so there are differences between the story on screen and what actually happened.
The true story begins on the Harvard campus. Kaczynski was a child prodigy who enrolled at the age of 16. While there, he spent about three years taking part in psychological experiments run by Professor Henry Murray, played by Russell Crowe. Those experiments were real and partly funded by the government. The Washington Post reports that student volunteers were subjected to extreme pressure, being questioned and attacked on their beliefs in some of the harshest sessions conducted. Murray was working with Christiana Morgan (Annabelle Wallis), and the two created a famous psychological test known as the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).
The film deviates from actual events when it establishes the relationship between those experiments and the events that followed. Director Janus Metz believes the experiments did not lead to Kaczynski becoming the Unabomber. In an interview with TIME, Metz explains that the experiments may have been “likely a piece of the puzzle” but are not enough to explain Kaczynski’s actions entirely. “I don’t think the Murray experiments in themselves turned Ted Kaczynski into the Unabomber. There are many factors in Ted Kaczynski’s life that contributed to his evolution,” he said. Metz refers to Kaczynski’s journal entries as well, in which the latter states the desire for revenge after feeling humiliated in some way. Notably, Kaczynski himself has said that the experiments didn’t really affect him.
Some scenes take liberties with the truth. While ‘Unabomber’ portrays Kaczynski’s relationship with Murray as a friendly, almost familial bond, in reality he was just one of hundreds of test subjects for him. Another fabricated element is the subplot about Kaczynski forging letters and establishing fake friendships to get back at Murray, which never happened in real life. So is the scene where Murray diagnoses Kaczynski with schizophrenia during their study is also entirely fictional. Meanwhile, Shailene Woodley’s FBI agent Joanne Miller is also fictional. The real-life equivalent of Miller is said to have been a composite figure designed to help the authorities track the bomber. In reality, it took a long and expensive manhunt before Kaczynski’s brother recognized his older brother’s writing in the Unabomber manifestos, leading to his arrest in 1996 in Montana.
Netflix is not the first streaming service to try its hand at the case. ‘Unabomber’ also has a four-part documentary series, ‘Unabomber: In His Own Words,’ which chronicles the events through the eyes of the bomber and some of his victims, without a single bit of dramatic license. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski conducted a mail bombing campaign of universities, airlines, computer stores, and academics or executives associated with technology or industry, which gave rise to the case’s original FBI designation, “UNABOM” (UNiversity and Airline BOMber). During the course of his campaign, Kaczynski sent and/or placed 16 bombs, resulting in three deaths and 23 injuries.
In 1995, Kaczynski wrote a 35,000-word document called ‘Industrial Society and Its Future,’ which he sent to several prominent newspapers and demanded that it be published in its entirety or else he would continue his bombings. The New York Times and The Washington Post agreed to publish the essay, which led to Ted’s arrest because his brother David recognized his writing style and notified the FBI. In 1996, Kaczynski was caught in his isolated cabin in Montana. After he was charged in 1998 with several crimes, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He passed away in a federal prison in 2023.
