Spoilers ahead for Netflix's Unabomber.
Netflix has had a ton of 2026 releases, and those with a Netflix subscription were treated this weekend to Janus Metz' Unabomber. The drama film tells the origin story of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, and features a stellar cast including Jacob Tremblay and Shailene Woodley. Both the director and the Big Little Lies star spoke to me about the ending's meaning.
Unabomber tells its title character's story across two timelines. Tremblay plays Kaczynski as a young man in the 1950s, who is manipulated during experiment at Harvard. Meanwhile we're shown Woodley's FBI Agent Joanne Miller during his manhunt and eventual 1996 capture. As you can see in the video above, I asked the recent Emmy winner about its final moments, and the scene where she weeps after finally catching Ted. She told me:
I am not a detective or a profiler, but I would imagine that after years and years and years of incessant thinking and reflecting and reevaluating. And you know, Joanne couldn't take a shower. She couldn't have a cup of coffee. She couldn't see a friend without thinking about who this person must be. So I think the overwhelm of not, not just having found him, but the overwhelm of like, what do I do with my life now? Like what now?
Honestly, this makes a great deal of sense. Just like the audience, Shailene Woodley doesn't know what it's like to conduct a manhunt. Although she can relate to the strange emptiness that can come after accomplishing one's goal. For her, that's where she found the connection to Joanne's breakdown at the end of Unabomber.
After successfully capturing Ted Kaczynski, Joanne is celebrated by her colleagues at the FBI, including a champagne toast. Despite this, she begins to weep when she has a moment alone in her office. Woodley spoke more about what was happening in her head on set, telling me:
That to me was, was the, the prompt for the emotion, less so about actually finding him and more so just like, 'Well, what else matters now? Like what do what now?'
I loved hearing Shailene Woodley's perspective, because that final scene of Joanne is one of the most emotionally impactful moments in Unabomber's 100-minute runtime. Although director Janus Metz had his own feelings about what that sequence means for the movie as a whole.
Just like Shailene Woodley, I had to ask Metz about what Joanne's breakdown at the end of Unabomber. He revealed that moment was thought of very specifically by the filmmaker behind the camera, telling me:
We went back and forth over that in the cutting room. But I thought it was very important to retain, to land the tragedy with Shailene's character. She's an empath throughout the film, and I think she grasps the full tragedy of this story of a family in a sense that fell apart. And this kid that was violated and how he became what he became.
While Unabomber is careful not to glorify Ted Kaczynski or justify his crimes (which resulted in three deaths and many more injuries), the 1950s story help to explain how he eventually became so disillusioned by society as we know it. Janus Metz spoke more about what the character of Joanne represents for the movie as a whole, telling me:
She sees past the monster, she sees past all the things that are on the surface, and she's not just, you know, celebrating the capturing of The Unabomber. She's the heart of the story, and she realizes the scope of the tragedy that this is. So, in a way, her tears at the end sort of is a tear for everything.
The tragedy of The Unabomber's victims is definitely something that's highlighted throughout the Netflix movie. The film opens on one bombing, and was a chilling way to start the story. Although by the end of the film, you do end up feeling for young Ted after the way he was manipulated at Harvard.
According to the filmmaker, Joanne's tears represent the multigenerational pain of Unabomber's story. That includes the victims, Ted, and his family. Metz put it:
It's a tear for Ted, it's a tear for David, his brother, that, you know, that gave him up to the FBI. It's a tear for all the victims. I thought that was the right way to end the film. There's a little sense of a message in that.
Shailene Woodley's performance really sells this moment, as does the way the dual-timeline story builds to a crescendo in Act Three. Because while Ted has a thrilling confrontation with Russell Crowe's Henry Murray, Joanne and her team are finally capturing Kaczynski in the '90s. I found it to be a wildly satisfying ending, and it should be interesting to see if Netflix users agree now that it's out.
Unabomber is streaming now on Netflix as part of the 2026 movie release list. Only time will tell how fans respond, and if it ends up trending in the streaming service's Top 10.
