Russell Crowe's New Mindhunter-esque Netflix Thriller Sets Rotten Tomatoes Audience Record After 21 Years

Published Sep 26, 2026, 10:04 PM EDT

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Russell Crowe's new Netflix crime thriller is unfortunately a dud.

The beloved Gladiator actor stars in Netflix's new biopic thriller, Unabomber, based on real-life domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski and played by Jacob Tremblay. While past biopics focused on his crimes and profiling, the new movie follows two timelines, one of which focuses on his time at Harvard University, where he became Henry Murray's (Crowe) test subject. Despite its true-crime nature, reviews of Unabomber were mixed to negative, with criticism of the narrative structure and an underwhelming critics' score of 22%.

The biopic is streaming on Netflix, and viewers have their verdict. With over 50 ratings, Unabomber failed to win them over, with a poor 32% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Netflix thriller ties with 1995's Virtuosity as Crowe's third-lowest audience score and one of his poorest-rated movies in over two decades.

Critics and audiences agree that Unabomber suffers from the two-timeline structure, which made the pacing uneven and boring. Other issues point to the movie's historical inaccuracy, especially Shailene Woodley's FBI character, who was gender-swapped. Meanwhile, Crowe and Tremblay delivered intriguing performances that would be the film's silver lining.

Russell Crowe's 7 Lowest-Rated Movies	Rotten Tomatoes Critics' Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
Tenderness (2008)	40%	23%
No Way Back (1996)	N/A	28%
Virtuosity (1995)	28%	32%
Unabomber (2026)	22%	32%
The Exorcism (2024)	27%	35%
Poker Face (2022)	9%	35%
The Mummy (2017)	15%	35%

The Netflix movie is not the first to tackle the true-crime story, and one version that stands out is Discovery Channel's 2017 series, Manhunt. Paul Bettany played the Unabomber, and Sam Worthington portrayed the real-life FBI profiler Jim "Fitz" Fitzgerald.

Unlike the new movie, critics and audiences lauded the show's innovative structure, intellectual tension, and educational depiction. Despite criticism over historical inaccuracy, that season holds a 93% Tomatometer and 92% audience score, respectively. In fact, Netflix acquired the rights and is now streaming the series.

Crowe closes out a very busy 2026 movie slate with mixed results. The Weight, which also released in September, and Beast earned positive reviews, while The Get Out and Unabomber weren't as well-received. Additionally, Unabomber was Crowe's first-ever Netflix movie in a starring role. He previously appeared in Brad Pitt's War Machine, but his role was a cameo and uncredited.

Meanwhile, Crowe is one of the busiest Hollywood actors. His return to the historical genre, The Last Druid, is expected to release in mid-2027, while Billion Dollar Spy is in post-production. Crowe will reunite with Man of Steel star Henry Cavill in the Highlander reboot, in which he portrays Ramírez, previously played by Sean Connery.

Unabomber was directed by Janus Metz Pedersen, while Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves penned the script. Annabelle Wallis, Alexander Ludwig, Steven Off, Marc Menchaca, and Gus Halper round out the supporting cast.

Unabomber is now streaming on Netflix.