It’s only a matter of time until Ryan Murphy turns his attention to the Unabomber for a season of his anthology series Monster. The series’ latest installment, Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, premiered on Netflix this week and instantly took the streamer’s number-one spot. Previous installments focused on Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez brothers, and Ed Gein. While it’s unclear which infamous historical figure will be the subject of the next season, a new movie about the Unabomber is slated for release on Netflix this week. It features Jacob Tremblay as the titular character, with Russell Crowe playing the Harvard psychologist who studied him.
The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was a math prodigy who worked as a professor before becoming a recluse who targeted unsuspecting victims with homemade explosive devices sent in the mail. He has been the subject of numerous films and documentaries in the past, having been played on screen by Tobin Bell and Sharlto Copley. Netflix released a documentary series titled Unabomber: In His Own Words, while the Discovery Channel aired a drama series about the case, with Paul Bettany playing the Unabomber.
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Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh
Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.
🍷Lecter
🃏Joker
♟️Moriarty
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🪙Chigurh
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01
What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.
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02
How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.
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03
What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.
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04
What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.
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05
They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.
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06
What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.
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07
What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is.
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08
How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.
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The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…
Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.
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The Silence of the Lambs · Hannibal · 1991–2002
Hannibal Lecter
Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.
Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He
never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
is exactly the door he would knock on.
The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.
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Batman · The Dark Knight · 1989–2019
The Joker
Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.
The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
you would normally reach for.
His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
the rest of your life proving him wrong.
He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.
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Sherlock Holmes · The Final Problem · Since 1893
Moriarty
Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.
Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way.
You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
has already built the room.
This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
the game to be worth playing.
It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.
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No Country for Old Men · 2007
Anton Chigurh
Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.
Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
interest in how capable you are.
No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
Call it. He will wait.
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Here’s When the New Crime Thriller Movie Lands on Netflix
The new movie, titled Unabomber, was directed by Janus Metz Pedersen, best known for helming episodes of Andor and the movies All the Old Knives and Borg vs. McEnroe — incidentally, both movies revolve around versions of psychological battle. Pedersen’s Unabomber movie also features Shailene Woodley as an FBI agent, while Alexander Ludwig and Annabelle Wallis play other supporting roles. The movie alternates between two timelines, one revolving around Kaczynski’s time as a Harvard University student and the other around his manhunt years later. Unabomber will be released on Netflix on September 25, and should appeal not only to fans of the Monster anthology series, but also to David Fincher‘s cult classic thriller series Mindhunter, which is most certainly not returning for a third season. Meanwhile, Crowe is experiencing success on the streaming charts thanks to the crime drama movie The Get Out, which is currently the most-watched title on Paramount+ domestically. You can watch Unabomber on Netflix this week, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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