Netflix's 'Unabomber' revisits mathematics professor gone rogue, Ted Kaczynski's Harvard years and the psychological experiments that became a debatable part of his story.
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Add BollywoodShaadis on GoogleNetflix's new movie, Unabomber, takes viewers back to the early years of Ted Kaczynski, long before he became known by the infamous nickname 'Unabomber', and explores how a mathematics professor descended into domestic terrorism. The psychological experiments he took part in at Harvard remain at the centre of the film, though their relevance to Kaczynski's later crimes has never been directly established.
The film stars Jacob Tremblay as young 'Ted Kaczynski' and Russell Crowe as Harvard psychologist 'Henry Murray.' While the movie dramatizes their relationship, the Harvard experiments themselves were real. Kaczynski began attending Harvard at just 16 in 1958 and participated in Murray's study from 1959 to 1962.
Years later, Kaczynski described the experience as one of the most disturbing chapters of his life.
In the Netflix movie, 'Ted Kaczynski' becomes involved in a series of psychological studies overseen by 'Henry Murray,' who is portrayed as a charismatic but increasingly unsettling professor.
The real Murray was a prominent Harvard psychologist whose interest lay in personality, stress, and human behavior. His research became particularly focused on how people reacted under extreme psychological pressure. We are talking about an era when governments and researchers were increasingly interested in things like interrogation and psychological warfare.
Kaczynski was among the 22 Harvard students who participated in Professor Murray's study. Participants were asked to write an essay on their own beliefs and philosophies. Those essays were then used during intense interrogation sessions designed to challenge and attack their ideas.
In the film, 'Ted Kaczynski' anticipates an intellectual debate but instead is subjected to humiliating personal attacks. The confrontation becomes increasingly disturbing as 'Henry Murray' and 'Christiana Morgan' use information gathered from the students to push them emotionally.
The real-life experiments of Professor Murray similarly involved aggressive questioning, and participants' reactions were recorded and studied. Kaczynski himself reportedly spent around 200 hours participating in the gruelling testing before it ended in 1962. He later described the experience as deeply distressing.
Unabomber presents the relationship between 'Ted Kaczynski' and 'Henry Murray' as an important force in the young student's transformation. But this is where the fact separates itself from fiction.
The film insinuates that the betrayal and humiliation that Ted Kaczynski suffered in the experiments led to him further rejecting modern society and technology, but there is no hard evidence that Murray’s experiments were a direct cause of Kaczynski becoming the infamous 'Unabomber.'
The real Kaczynski went on to spend years developing an anti-technology ideology before beginning his bombing campaign in 1978. His attacks continued for nearly two decades, killing three people and injuring 23 others. Even though psychologists and historians have debated the possible impact of the Harvard experiments, that discussion remains separate from establishing a direct causal link.
As psychologist Nigel Barber told History.com, the experiments were "stressful," and stress can aggravate psychological symptoms like schizophrenia. However, it would be a mistake to treat the experience as the major determinant of Kaczynski's later political beliefs and violence. In Barber's words:
"It was just one more personal grudge that he could fit into a paranoid narrative about how the world worked in general, and for him in particular."
In the movie, 'Ted Kaczynski' eventually turns the psychological game back on 'Henry Murray.' The student recognizes the professor's interest in his own theories and uses that knowledge against him. He leaves 'Henry Murray' a copy of Moby-Dick containing an ominous passage about science and human arrogance. The film then connects the Harvard storyline to the later FBI investigation into the 'Unabomber.'
In reality, Kaczynski was eventually identified after his brother David recognized similarities between his writing and the Unabomber manifesto. Kaczynski was arrested in 1996 at his remote Montana cabin and later pleaded guilty to federal charges. He received four consecutive life sentences plus 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole. Professor Murray died in 1988 of pneumonia at age 95.
The Netflix movie uses the Harvard experiments as part of a larger exploration of how 'Ted Kaczynski' developed his worldview. But while Unabomber dramatizes the psychological relationship between 'Ted Kaczynski' and 'Henry Murray,' the real history leaves a more complicated question: can the experiments, while undeniably intense and ethically controversial, really be presented as a proven explanation for the violence Kaczynski later committed?
Unabomber is now available for streaming on Netflix.
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