The Russell Crowe Unabomber thriller on Netflix is a viewer hit, even though critics have not warmed to it. Netflix’s own Tudum figures show the film was the number one movie worldwide from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4, with 24.9 million views in its second week in the Top 10, according to CBR. The next title on the list, The Widower: Til Death Do Us Part, managed 11.6 million.
Collider reported that the film had passed 40 million views overall, and described it as one of the biggest Netflix originals of 2026.
Russell Crowe Unabomber reviews and cast
Directed by Janus Metz, the film follows Ted Kaczynski, later known as the Unabomber, played by Jacob Tremblay. Crowe plays Professor Henry Murray, a Harvard researcher whose psychological experiments on the teenage Kaczynski are central to the story. A parallel storyline follows the FBI manhunt led by Joanne Miller, played by Shailene Woodley.
The reviews have been rough. The film holds a 24 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 49 reviews, per CBR. The Daily Telegraph’s Tim Robey wrote that the material about Kaczynski’s high IQ is “drab and lazy” and compared it unfavorably to A Beautiful Mind. Some reviewers did praise the cast, singling out Crowe’s performance and Tremblay’s quiet intensity.
Collider has also framed the film as a spiritual stand-in for Mindhunter, the Netflix series that ended after two seasons, since both center on studying the minds of violent offenders.
