Netflix has released a new film titled Unabomber, which dramatizes the FBI's 16-year search for terrorist Ted Kaczynski.
The thriller is directed by Janus Metz from a screenplay by Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves.
Shailene Woodley plays federal agent Joanne Miller, Russell Crowe portrays Harvard professor Henry Murray, and Jacob Tremblay appears as young Kaczynski.
Two Timelines, One Manhunt
The film moves between two periods. One follows the 1995 law enforcement effort led by agent Joanne Miller in San Francisco.
The other revisits Kaczynski's early academic life as a 16-year-old mathematics prodigy at Harvard University in 1958.
By 1995, Kaczynski had carried out 15 bombings that killed two people and injured 23 others.
The attacks prompted major newspapers to publish his anti-technology manifesto, titled "Industrial Society and Its Future."
The investigation reaches a turning point when Joanne Miller analyzes the linguistics of the manifesto.
Her analysis matches a tip from David Kaczynski about similarities to letters written by his brother Ted.
During his Harvard years, the young Kaczynski took part in psychological experiments run by Professor Henry Murray.
The experiments involved aggressive verbal degradation while he was connected to monitoring equipment.
Reflecting on those intense debate sessions, Kaczynski told his mentor that when the battle starts, just keep up the fight.
The dynamic between professor and student explores the roots of Kaczynski's psychological deterioration before his eventual arrest at his remote cabin in Lincoln, Montana.
After an uncomfortable interaction on a social outing during his college years, Kaczynski expressed his deep isolation to Murray.
"Martian," said Ted Kaczynski, character in Unabomber.
He further elaborated on his sense of detachment during the psychological evaluation process.
"I don't belong here… I think there's something wrong with me," said Ted Kaczynski, character in Unabomber.
The production uses archival news reports and shadowy atmospheric visuals to document the conclusion of the longest and most expensive manhunt in FBI history.
