Unabomber Ending Explained: Did the CIA Have a Role in Turning Ted Kaczynski Into a Bomber?

Netflix’s Unabomber, directed by Janus Metz, tells its story across two timelines that never quite touch. In 1995 San Francisco, Shailene Woodley‘s FBI behavioural analyst Joanne Miller is convinced the bureau is chasing the wrong kind of man.

In 1958 Harvard, Jacob Tremblay‘s teenage Theodore Kaczynski signs up for a debate club run by Russell Crowe‘s Professor Henry Murray, believing he has found a mentor. The film’s argument is that the second timeline created the first.

Murray’s experiment was real, and so was the code name the study gave Kaczynski. But whether it was all part of the CIA’s MKUltra program is something argued rather than documented. The movie takes liberties with this argument, presenting its entire premise based on this argument.

However, it refuses to give an explanation for what made Ted Kaczynski tick, which is something our review of Unabomber from M.N. Miller also highlights. The ending hinges on a final confrontation between the student and professor, and on a wrapped box. Here is what all of it means.

How Did Ted Kaczynski Outsmart His Mentor in Unabomber?

Ted Kaczynski was quick to catch up with his opponent in debate club, Mr. C. For weeks, he was torn apart by Mr. C, who broke the debate rules and insulted him personally. Ted stops playing along when he plays the private confessions he had with his professor, Henry Murray, and Christiana Morgan, played by Annabelle Wallis.

Ted finds out why his vulnerable confession ended up on a tape. Christiana Morgan admits the sessions are a CIA-funded study into how men can be broken, built to understand why soldiers returning from Korea came back repeating communist ideas. Worse, his file is tagged “Lawful.”

He was not chosen for his brilliant mind. He was chosen because he was obedient and the right age. Ted is hurt and broken, but once on the other side, he is now a determined man with a plan. He writes down that his “Experiment #1” is Henry Murray, and he returns a different person.

He refuses to break despite Mr. C’s best efforts, which clearly makes Murray worried. He wants his experiment to be perfect, and Ted’s refusal to break was causing a major hiccup. When Christiana wants him to stop and submit the study as is, he shows her all the letters from great scholars who wanted him to achieve nothing short of greatness.

Murray takes the chair himself, determined to prove his own work by destroying the boy personally. He produces evidence that Ted is schizophrenic, using the diagnosis to dismiss every idea Ted has ever had. While for a moment we believe that Ted might break, he doesn’t.

Instead, he goes after the one thing Murray actually cares about. His reputation. Those letters of praise from eminent scientists, the ones Murray waved at Christiana as proof of his coming greatness, were written by Ted. He brutally mocked Henry’s sense of seeking approval. It was Henry who was left broken. And Ted became an unlawful and dangerous man.

How Did Joanne Miller Catch the Unabomber?

FBI Agent Joanne Miller’s problem is that she is right and nobody believes her. The bureau has hunted this man for 16 years on a profile she thinks is wrong, and the manifesto Industrial Society and Its Future is her proof. The language belongs to a highly educated man, not the suspect they keep chasing.

The break comes from outside. A man calls the Washington field office to say the manifesto sounds like something his brother would write. Joanne meets David Kaczynski, who cannot accept that his brother is capable of violence, though his wife is nearly certain.

With her partner Leo unwilling to abandon seven years of work and her team assigned elsewhere, Joanne goes to Lincoln, Montana alone. She tells the local sheriff she is investigating property tax. She walks up to Ted’s cabin and comes within moments of being seen. The sheriff’s records give her the first real thread.

David was removed from the deed of the cabin, leaving Ted the sole owner. That sends her back to David, who explains the falling-out and produces the letters Ted wrote to their mother. One of them is effectively a first draft of the manifesto.

It is the evidence that seals her suspicion and brings the FBI to Lincoln. They face a minor hiccup when CBS gets hold of Ted’s name, but Joanne trades them the detail that his own brother turned him in, buying enough time to make the arrest cleanly.

What Did Ted Kaczynski’s Parting Gift Mean?

Having dismantled Murray’s self-image, Ted hands him a box. It is wrapped and packaged in exactly the style of the mail bombs he will spend the next two decades sending, which is the first layer of the message. He shows Murray what he has made him into.

Inside is a copy of Moby-Dick, the novel Murray was teaching in the scene where we first met him. Two passages are underlined, and together they say everything. It reads “…however baby man may brag of his science and skill…” and “…to the crack of doom, the sea will insult and murder him.”

Murray is Ahab. He believed his methods could master something far larger than himself, and Ted is telling him the sea always wins. The man who spent months proving he could break a human being has just been broken by one, using nothing but a lie about letters and a book he taught his class.

Have you seen the movie? What are your thoughts about the movie and its real-life story? Let us know in the comments below!

Unabomber is now streaming on Netflix.