Russell Crowe's New Netflix Thriller Is Officially Tackling The Untold Story Of Infamous American Outlaw

EXCLUSIVE: Russell Crowe's new Netflix thriller Unabomber is taking a different approach to the infamous true story, exploring Ted Kaczynski's Harvard years and the psychological experiments that preceded his transformation into the Unabomber.

The new Netflix thriller stars Jacob Tremblay as a young Kaczynski and Russell Crowe as Harvard professor Henry Murray, whose controversial psychological experiments become a major part of the movie's story.

In an interview with ScreenRant's Ash Crossan, Tremblay explained that he was surprised to learn just how young Kaczynski was when he attended Harvard and that his experiences there would become such an important part of the movie. Check out his comments below:

I had no idea about Ted, and how he was 16 years old and went to Harvard. I really truly had no idea. And I think most people don't. Obviously, this story has been told many times, specifically about the Unabomber, but him going to Harvard and those psychological experiments that they did on him have never really been explored. That's something really unique that I think our film brings out. The story of the Unabomber has never been told this way.

Rather than beginning with Kaczynski as the notorious figure already known to the public, the movie spends time with him as a teenage mathematical prodigy. Crowe plays Murray, the Harvard psychologist whose relationship with Kaczynski becomes intertwined with the movie's exploration of those experiments. Annabelle Wallis plays Christiana Morgan, Murray's academic partner, who also becomes an important figure in the story.

For Wallis, that part of the story was equally unsettling because it shifts some of the attention away from Kaczynski himself and toward the institutions and people surrounding him.

Annabelle Wallis: These institutions that are built to protect, you assume, like a schooling system with people who have such an ability to imprint on young minds. You'd think that they're the safest places, but actually, lo and behold, they were really the nefarious kind of evil villains. And that's, I think, terrifying. I had no idea. And now it just makes me question everything. I'm one of those annoying people that is like, "Are you who you say you are?"

The psychological experiments weren't the only piece of research that surprised the cast. Tremblay and Wallis also pointed to details involving the people around Kaczynski that they hadn't known before making the movie.

When asked about the most interesting piece of research they discovered that turned out to be true, Tremblay immediately returned to the experiments: "I think the psychological experiments definitely were a huge part of it."

Wallis, meanwhile, was struck by the fact that Kaczynski's brother ultimately turned him in: "That his brother [turned] him in. I thought that was really interesting." Tremblay added, "Yeah. Honestly, that's probably it too."

The movie also explores the complicated personal life of Christiana Morgan. Wallis pointed out that Morgan was married and had a child while carrying on a long-term affair with Murray, something she found particularly unexpected given the time period.

Annabelle Wallis: That Christiana was married and had a child, but was having a long-term affair with Henry Murray. I thought, "Ooh, she's a very modern woman in many ways." Not only an academic mind, but definitely living out a truth that was not conventional, which I applaud her for.

The fresh approach to the familiar story shines a light on the not-so-familiar details, which is something that sets it apart from other projects, but it's also something that opens it up to some scrutiny. ScreenRant's Unabomber review identifies the focus as an "identity problem" that "accidentally glorifies a monster," and as it would seem, audiences agree. It broke a Rotten Tomatoes record with an astonishingly low 31% audience score, and critics were similarly harsh with a 21% score.

Still, the new movie, which debuted on Netflix on September 26, has become the most-watched movie on Netflix's global streaming chart. Whether Unabomber resonates with audiences or not, one thing is certain: the new Netflix thriller has successfully wandered into uncharted territory for one of America's most notorious criminals.

Unabomber is now streaming on Netflix.