All language subtitles for Episode 01 Unabom

I want you to think about

the mail for a minute.

Stop taking it for granted
like some complacent,

sleepwalking sheep

and really think about it.

I promise you,

you will find the U.S. mail

a worthy object of your contemplation.

A piece of paper can cross a continent

like we're passing notes in class.

I can send you cookies from
the opposite side of the world,

and all I have to do is
write your name on the box,

put some stamps on it, and drop it in.

And you see, it only works

because every single
person along the chain

acts like a mindless automaton.

I write an address, and they just...

obey.

No question.

No deviation.

No pause to contemplate eternity...

Or beauty...

Or death.

Even you, for all your
protestations of free will,

if a box comes with your name on it,

you can't even imagine
doing anything other...

Than obey.

- Morning.
- Hey.

Here you go.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.

Well, it's not your fault.

Society made you this way.

Hey, Gil?

But you're a sheep,

and you're living in a world of sheep.

And because you're all sheep,

because all you can do is obey,

I can reach out

and touch anyone anywhere.

I can reach out

and touch you...

Right now.

_

You're trespassing.

This is private property.

Hey, Fitz.

Come on, let's go inside.

Congratulations, you are now officially

FBI profilers.

As profilers, you're going to

encounter a lot of skepticism.

A lot of agents, good agents,

think us quacks.

No.

We're pioneers in the
frontier of law enforcement.

We're scientists of the mind,

and in the very worst cases

the FBI deals with,

we will be

our nation's last hope.

Welcome to the behavioral analysis unit.

Supervisory special
agent Jessica Mcginity.

Wonderful work.

Thank you.

With accommodation for superior merit,

supervisory special
agent James Fitzgerald.

Congratulations, Fitz.

Congratulations.

Yeah!

- Dad!
- Whoo-hoo!

Dad, come on! Come outside, dad!

Come on, dad. Mom's gonna give us speech.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I'm coming.

- Come on!
- I'm coming!

Okay. Hi, everybody.

Can you believe we're even here

celebrating my husband

the FBI profiler?

I'm still pinching myself.

You were a rookie beat
cop when we got married.

Jim, you were determined

always to become what you saw

as the best version of yourself,

to become someone

that your family, your sons

could look up to and admire.

It's not easy being
married to a stubborn man.

I'm talking about you.

But it's that damned
stubbornness that got you

through night school, on
to the detective squad,

into Quantico, and finally

into the elite of the elite.

I admire that so, so much,

so cheers, Jim, welcome home.

- Did you have fun?
- Yeah.

You know I'm not great in crowds.

Well, I tried.

All right, look, who cares?
Dan, clean up down there!

Listen, it... It was amazing.

Thank you.

Aww.

Look, I tried.

Thank you.

Well, you know, I... I...

What?

I had fun.

It's just hard waiting.

Oh, yeah.

You know?

No, I-i got soapy hands.

Put 'em on me.

Dad, there's two
bald guys at the door!

- Oh! Put 'em up!
- Dan, Dan!

- Look at this kid.
- Hey.

- Hey.
- Hey.

- Guess we missed the party.
- Look who it is.

No, no, we're just...
We're just cleaning up.

- Dan.
- We're trying. It's a zoo.

Ugh, you got to change him.

- Yeah, all right.
- There you go.

Apologies, but...

It's all right.

...we have something urgent
we need to discuss with you.

Right.

Yeah, come in.

Mcalpine says you're the
best profiler in his class,

maybe the best he's got.

But you're 10 years older than the rest

of your classmates, and
I look at your r�sum�,

and I see you languishing for
almost a decade as a beat cop,

mostly on the graffiti squad.

You piss somebody off? What happened?

No. I wrote a parking ticket.

Mm. Chief asked me to make it go away

'cause it was for a friend
of a friend, and I didn't.

So, what, you're like the
Serpico of parking tickets?

Some people would call
that being overly literal.

Yeah, some people might.

Take a look at this letter.

Tell me what you see.

You're making fun of me.

You're making fun of me, right?

Right? Here, take these upstairs.

How many times do I have to tell you?

You talking about the emordnilap?

"Dad, it is I"?

Explain.

Well, it's a word thing.

It's like a palindrome,
except it spells one thing

forwards and another thing backwards.

The first letter of each
paragraph... d, a, d,

I, t, I, s, I.

Okay.

D, a, d, I, t, I, s, I...

"Dad, it is I."

D-a-d, I-t, right?

D-a-d, I-t, I-s I...

"Dad, it is I," "is it I, dad?"

It's pretty cool, right?

I'm Andy Genelli. I'm
head the Unabom task force.

I thought the... I thought
the Unabom case was over.

Six years and not a peep.

They thought he was
dead, but now he's back.

Three new mail bombs,
more deadly than before.

The latest one yesterday...

A timber lobbyist, Sacramento.

The news is gonna
break on these tomorrow.

We've been playing it
pretty close to the vest

until we were sure it
was him, and not a...

Hey. Okay.

...copycat, but it's him,
and we need a profile.

Okay. Go on upstairs now. Now.

What are you doing?

- I have kids.
- I want to send you.

It's one month.

You go out there, build a profile,

and come back to the B.A.U.

with a big gold star.

They say this is from
him, from the Unabomber?

His most recent letter.

50 FBI agents have been going
over that a fine-tooth comb

day and night for two weeks.

Not one of them saw the
emordnilap, not even me.

I've had profilers working
on this thing for 15 years,

and we're right back to where we started.

I need somebody that
sees things differently,

and like it or not, that's you.

But I've been away for four
months, and I just got back.

I can't just up and go 'cause of him,

so I can't do that to Ellie and the kids.

I can't do that to my family.

Here. Good luck.

Good night. Sorry to intrude.

- Do me a favor, Fitz.
- Hmm?

Fitz, think about it.

Keep the photos.

The guy with this face blown off,

he had a wife and kids, too.

- See ya.
- Not if I see you first.

Thank you.

- Are those for me from grandma?
- Those are my cookies

from grandma.

- They're mine.
- Yeah. Go and unpack.

Go, go.

- Hi, guys.
- These are mine.

You need to share!

I'm definitely not sharing.

Sorry, buddy, 'cause grandma
made these cookies just for me.

Yeah, but you need to share.

- These are my cookies.
- Hey, guys.

Don't pig out on grandma's cookies.

Look at you.
You're living like an animal now, huh?

Jesus.

You kill those yourself?

What are you doing in my house, Cole?

Well, I don't want to
be here, believe me.

But the boss needs you.

We need you to get into
a room with Kaczynski,

interrogate him, break him down,

get him to plead guilty.

We need someone who can speak
the Unabomber's language,

someone, uh, that he connects with.

Besides,

Ted asked for you.

The Unabomber asked for me specifically?

Specifically for you, and only you.

Why me?

He says he'll only talk to the person

who actually caught him,

and for some reason,
he thinks that's you.

Well, that is me.

You were chasing your tails
for years before I came.

This guy... You got some nerve.

I found him, I caught
him, I put him in jail.

You know what? I got
my life back together.

I'm just gonna stay right
here. Tell Ted I'm busy.

Listen, we have enough
evidence to convict

Ted Kaczynski 10 times over,

but if this goes to trial,

he's gonna make it a media circus,

then we would be giving the
Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski,

the biggest microphone in America,

and his message is dangerous.

We need him to plead guilty.

Look, Fitz, we're asking you,

but we can order you if we need to.

You can order me. Right.

You still work for the
FBI, you remember that?

Now, hold on, Cole?

I get the forestry service out here...

- Take it down, Cole!
- Get out of here.

Get out of here.

Hey, Fitz.

Think about it.

Fitz!

You have that new-profiler smell.

Tabby Milgrim.

- Hi.
- I'm your new partner.

Well, I'm the UTF's
whole behavioral unit.

Come on. Let's get you
out of this craziness.

PB today. Sorry.

Flight schools sucks.

Plus U San Raffaele is
about a fart and a half away

from losing it's
accreditation, but whatever.

As long as I squeak out a
masters before they go under,

we're all good.

So, you're a profiler.

You trained at the B.A.U.?

Hell no, bruh.

I'm just a street agent.

You ever worked on a big op before?

Some big bank robberies and
a D.A. homicide task force

in Philly had, like, 20 full-time agents.

It was pretty huge, pretty intense.

Hmm. Well, welcome to
the Unabom task force.

Whoa.

Fresh meat, you're with me.

Big bad Stan Cole.

Come on... briefing's about to start.

All right.

I'm gonna rip the band-aid off quick.

Most of you are TDY'd here for 60 days...

Want to get you on the playing field,

except of course for Tabby
whose been here for two years

and somehow still shows up late.

We are hunting the deadliest
serial bomber in history...

The Unabomber.

For 17 years he's been
planting and mailing bombs,

16 bombs, three people
killed, dozens injured,

and we really have no
friggin' clue who he is

or why he's doing this.

We call him the Unabomber
because his early targets

were universities and airlines...

"Un" for "university,"

"a" for "airline," Unabom.

He calls himself "FC" for "Freedom Club."

It's how he signs all his letters.

It's also how he signs his bombs.

17 years of bombs

all signed by FC.

He's a sick bastard.

Northwestern, 1978,
another one there in '79.

November '79... nearly takes out

American airlines flight 444.

The bomb was sent via air mail
rigged with an altimeter...

22 passengers injured.

1980, United Airlines president

gets his face blown in.

More university bombs, '81, '82...

Computer science professors,
engineering professors,

one poor secretary at Vanderbilt

opened a package addressed to her boss.

More universities in '82,

'85, '85, Boeing in '85,

two computer shops, '85 and '87.

The second one, he
got his first fatality.

And this is where we
got our first eyewitness.

She gave us this now famous sketch,

and then nothing for six years.

So we figured he was dead
or maybe finally got laid.

But then he is back...

Epstein at U.C., Gelernter at Yale.

In his hiatus, he
developed much more powerful

and sophisticated bombs,
and they keep coming.

Exxon Valdez�s PR guy, Mosser,

and just last week, Gil
Murray in Sacramento.

It took three body bags
to collect the parts.

Why these targets? Why now?

No clue.

So, what forensic leads do we have?

Basically, we have no forensic leads.

No DNA, no prints.

But we did have a couple good ideas.

We discovered that he gets his
addresses out one particular

edition of "Who's who," so
we interviewed just about

every librarian in
the country... nothing.

Makes his bombs out of junk,

so we did a national
junkyard canvass... no dice.

But we figure eventually
he is gonna screw up,

and maybe he already did.

Over the years, he's been
mailing typed letters...

Nothing worth reading until
this letter that he wrote

to the New York times.

Now, the letter itself is blah-blah-blah,

but forensics found
this on the envelope...

"Call Nathan R."

We figure he wrote himself a post-it note

on top of the letter.

And that is our first real lead.

FBI agents are
interviewing everyone called

"Nathan R-something" in the country.

Plan B is to find Nathans
with "R" middle names.

10,000 Nathan Rs.

And that is it.

Enjoy your afternoons.

Don't forget to tip your driver.

It's not much to go on.

Nope.

This is why they need us.

The profile's gonna
focus the entire search.

It's a big responsibility.

It's exciting. Yeah, right?

Mildly.

Come on. S.A.C. Ackerman
wants to meet you.

It's an honor, sir.

I feel privileged to
be under your command.

I studied your cases at the academy...

The Russian river killer,
Hartford abduction.

Under any other agent,
that would have ended

in a murder-suicide, and, agent Cole,

Ohio Seven Sting, busting
the Bad Axe Militia.

I can't believe I'm standing here.

I am... I'm eager to learn form you both.

Well, I love this guy already.

So, Fitz, we sent Genelli
to bring back the best man

he could find, and that is you.

Welcome aboard.

And here is what you're
gonna be working on.

Low I.Q., formerly employed
by an airline mechanic

or technician, no higher education,

possibly little to no high school,

grew up in Ohio... Cleveland
or Cincinnati likely...

Currently resides in the bay area.

So, what is this?

It's our current profile,
my own summary of it.

Where's the rest of it?

That's exactly why you're here.

I want you to take that, flesh it out.

I'm gonna need 15 pages
that can directly on

Attorney General Janet Reno's desk.

So make us look good.

Yeah, I will. I will. I'll do my best.

It's just a little
different than I'm used to,

'cause in terms of a profile,
they were a lot more scientific

and a little bit longer.

Welcome to the real world.

Quantico's a long way away.

What S.S.A. Cole means
is that that summary

is a distillation of 10 years work,

so it's got a solid foundation
and we don't expect it

to change except for the wood thing.

Mm.

The wood thing?

There's a theory FC
is obsessed with wood.

Maybe he has erectile dysfunction.

Since he blew up this
Mosser guy... moss...

It's like a plant, so that
can go in your profile now.

That's gonna play very,
very well with the press,

so I want you to dress that up a bit,

uh, "a propensity for softness
in the genital region,"

something like that... But nothing crude.

I can definitely do something.

I was excepting a support team.

Nope. It's all you, Fitz.

But I know you can handle it.

Okay.

15 pages, clean, no typos, and wood,

a lot of bullet points,
a lot of big words,

a couple weeks, get it turned in,

get you back home.

If you want to hear some war stories,

come out for a beer tomorrow.

We're going to Freddy's...
Old-school San Francisco.

You'll like it.

- Sure.
- Yeah.

I just don't see it.

I just don't see the wood thing.

They want me to do a thing
about FC's erectile dysfunction.

What is it with men and their dongs?

You should write it.

Write that report...
You'll be on CNN tonight.

It's B.S.

This profile... This profile is B.S.

I think it's got to go.

Let's just start over.

What, just toss it all?

I don't know, man.

They've been saying "airlines,
mechanic from Cincinnati"

for years now... Consistently.

There must be some reason.

Come here.

What's the first trap we
watch for as profilers?

Inherited assumptions.

So all these preconceptions
we just toss out,

come at it clean.

We know nothing about nothing about FC

except what the evidence tells us,

so if we don't assume
that he's a airline worker,

what else points to Cincinnati?

All the bombs that he
planted at the universities...

Was it because he's a resentful outsider

or because that's
where he felt most safe?

And here... All right? Okay.

When he talked down on
people with advanced degrees,

is he actually low I.Q.
with no higher education,

or is he really smart, maybe
he has a bunch of degrees

and knows we're gonna read
this letter and is hoping

that we don't think too hard about it?

I... Wow.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Exactly.

We don't know.

We don't know anything.

But you go by this profile,

your mind is just gonna go like this.

So we start over.

Make the list, everything we need.

Yes!

Respectfully, this is
what I need to start over

and build a profile we
can all stand behind.

I know it's a bump in
time and in resources,

but this is going on the
Attorney General's desk,

it's going in the press
with your name on it,

so we have to get it right.

How many profiles have you created,

outside the classroom, I mean?

This is my first.

Well, there you go.

So let me explain to you how this works.

Your job is to fulfill the duties

laid out to you by S.A.C.

That's Ackerman.

He gave you parameters, now go execute.

Respectfully, all I'm asking for

is the freedom to do
excellent work for you.

That's all.

Otherwise, your profile is
gonna hamper your investigation.

It's not gonna help it.

When your only tool's a hammer, son,

everything looks like a nail.

You're a profiler, you think
the profile's gonna catch him.

Genelli's a gearhead.

He thinks it's all about his computer.

We got a guy that's been
working on the Unabomber

stamp selection for the last five years.

To him, a $1 Eugene O'Neill stamp

is the key to everything.

Now, I inherited that guy and I
allow him to pursue that avenue,

'cause, uh, well, you never know.

But when I tell him to do something,

I expect him to do it.

Well, I'm not your stamp guy.

I'm your profiler.

Even the stamp guy doesn't
think he's the stamp guy.

All right, let me walk you through it.

You know what these are?

These are profiles of the Unabomber,

and we've got them all.

You want to know where he lives?

Okay.

In a house with a room
that his wife and kids

know never to go into.

Or maybe with his mother...

a Norman Bates thing going on.

And this is a classic.

It's 20 full pages by
the legendary John Douglas

about how the Unabomber maintains his car

right down to the air
freshener, which is royal pine.

Now, we've had every top
profiler in the business

come through here, and
every single one of them

says he's got to start all
over, and every one of them

says something completely different,

so pardon me if I'm a little skeptical

of your profession.

Now, Ackerman brought me in here

to keep this investigation
focused and on track.

We've been running around
in circles for years,

and it's time for that to stop.

So instead of 100 different
contradictory profiles,

we're going with one

backed up by concrete forensic evidence,

and that's the profile that I gave you.

The only way we're gonna
catch the Unabomber,

same way we catch
anybody, that's forensics.

It's plain and simple.

Now, you could spend
six months coming up with

the world's most accurate profile,

but that's not what we're looking for.

We're looking for 15
pages, no typos, and wood,

and we want to take it
to the press next week.

Now, I understand that
you're a brilliant guy.

I do.

Mcalpine says you can all kinds
of stuff hidden in letters,

and that's great, so
take the Unabom letters

and find wood.

Okay?

So right now, all that's required of you

is obedience.

Understand?

Okay, on Tuesday,
we discussed regional dialects

and linguistic prescriptivism.

See you next week.

Natalie.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just show up.

I just didn't know where else to go.

What happened to you?

Where'd you go?

Where have you been?

You know, I tried to find you.

I called your office, your home.

I talked to your wife... Everything.

The Unabom case is over.

It was over two years ago.

It's not over, and I need help.

You have to have some place you can go...

Family, somebody other than me.

Hey. Look, look... We got a friend!

What's your name?

Winston and Jasper.

Look, I-i have to defend my
dissertation in a couple weeks,

so I have to work tonight.

All right, I'm gonna take
these guys to the kitchen.

Why don't you... why
don't you take a shower?

You can sleep on the couch.

Come on! Come on!

They want me to go in
and interrogate Ted.

They need me.

They need me to get the guilty plea.

I think that...

I think I need to confront
him and get some answers.

You have the answers.

You proved that Ted's the Unabomber.

Answers for myself, so I can understand

what happened to me and
where I should go from here.

And what makes you
think that he has answers

to any question that matters?

What do you think?

You wanted this.

You wanted him in your life.

Secretly, somehow you wanted this.

That's the answer.

That's the only way I can
make sense of what happened.

You wanted him in your life

more than you wanted
anyone or anything else.

Why would I want that?

What kind of person would want that?

They interview 10,000 Nathan Rs,

and then they turn to me
and say that profiling's

a waste of resources. Think about that.

You're a cog in the machine, Fitz.

Embrace it, bruh.

Oh-oh! There he is.

It's our head shrinker come
to mingle with the commoners.

- Hey, where you going, bruh?
- Sacramento to do my job.

They want you to obey.

They want you to be a
sheep like they are sheep...

Obedient, unquestioning
piece of machinery.

Sit when told to sit,
stand when told to stand.

They want you to give up
your humanity, your autonomy

for a paycheck, gold star, bigger TV.

The only way to be human,

the only way to be free, is to rebel.

They'll try to crush you.

They'll use every tactic they
have to make you obedient,

docile, subservient,
but you can't let them.

You have to be your own
master, whatever that takes.

Better to die a human being

than to live as a purposeless
cog in their machine.

You dropped it in the mail a week ago.

Gil.

This just came.

You want to be here.

You want to be here,

touching this, savoring it.

But you can't be here.

You can't be here.

Ever... for any of them.

Why is that enough for you and
not any other serial killer?

Never to see it,

hear it, taste it,

never to see Gil Murray's body.

Because it's not about him.

It's not about him as
an individual, is it?

These aren't people to you.

They're symbols.

You're sending a message.

That's why you use the
mail, 'cause it's a message.

It's a hidden message.

And what does it symbolize?

What does it represent?

So, what are you trying to tell us, FC?

What are you trying to tell me?

"Dad, it is I."

What are you trying to tell me, FC?

What are you trying to tell me?

Your whole profile is
built on the assumption

that FC was one of the airline mechanics

that United Airlines
laid off in Cincinnati,

and that he targeted
American Airlines flight 444

and United president Percy Wood
out of a personal grudge, right?

Right.

But let's think about mail bombs.

He can't hear them, he can't see
them, he can't visit the site,

he can't view the bodies, anything.

It's none of the satisfaction of revenge.

But he keeps bombing anyway.

Why?

Because these aren't personal targets.

They are representational targets.

Gil Murray was a symbol
of something for him.

All of his targets
symbolize something for FC.

We have done every kind of victimology.

His victims are random,

totally unconnected to each other.

All right.

So he spends years perfecting
the most untraceable,

sophisticated mail bomb ever created,

and then just picks random
targets from a phone book?

I don't think it was a random coincidence

that these letters spell "Dad, it is I,"

and I don't think it's a random
coincidence that he's targeting

airlines, scientists,
computers, forestry people.

I think it only seems random

because we don't know what connects them.

We can't... We don't know his code,

and the reason that
we don't know his code

is because we're still assuming
he's a low-I.Q. pissed off

airline mechanic when he's actually been

outsmarting us the whole time.

We've got hard forensic evidence

that he's a trained airline mechanic.

Look.

Batteries soldered in
series, encased in a wire cage

just like airplane power bricks,

he's an expert at casting
and shaping aluminum,

and look... look at this
new switch he's developed.

It looks exactly like an
airplane tail stand on a 747.

We've had pilots confirm that.

That only looks like a tail stand

if you're looking for
proof of the supposition

that he's an airline mechanic.

If you're objective about
it, it's just a switch.

Do you ever think that the
reason you haven't got him

in 17 years is that
you're underestimating him?

There is a powerful
intelligence at work here,

a deep personal philosophy underpinning

all of FC's actions.

Now, you figure out the philosophy,

you can figure out the
man, you can crack the code.

But not with this.

We have to start over.

Get rid of that and start over.

Fitz, buddy,

you're breaking my heart.

You are part of a
world-class orchestra here.

Lots of instruments, lots of virtuosos,

and out of all of these
players, I'm pointing to you,

and I'm saying now is
the time for your solo.

Stand up, play your heart out

so the whole world can hear you.

But you got to play with the
sheet music that I'm giving you.

Because you may be a
once-in-a-century talent,

but if you can't harmonize
with the rest of the orchestra,

I'm gonna have to send you home.

Dude, where have you been?
Why ain't you downstairs?

Didn't Genelli tell you?

I'm going home. I'm not writing that B.S.

Fitz, you got to get
down to forensics now.

You said he had a personal philosophy,

some message he's trying to send.

You were right.

The New York Times called it in.

They got a package.

Another bomb?

No, it's something else.

They're calling it the
"Unabomber manifesto."

If you screw this up, we'll crucify you.

_

Hey, we just got handed
a 56-page manifesto

from the most elusive
criminal in the world,

something so important he wants
both The Post and The Times to

have it, and I just want five
minutes in the lab to read it.

I'll gown up, I'll look
over their shoulders.

- It's five minutes.
- There's a system here, a process,

a process that begins with
a complete forensic analysis...

Thorough, unhurried, uncorrupted

- by meddling rubberneckers.
- Yeah, I know, but it's

a big break in the case, and I'm
here to be a word guy, all right?

You are here to wait and
to do what you're told.

A big break in this case
comes when we pull

a fingerprint off one of those pages,
when we find another Nathan R.

A single strand of hair
would be far more valuable

than anything you are gonna
get from reading the guy's rant.

Well, "Dad, it is I"...
He got that from reading.

Yeah, case friggin' closed.
We wait for forensics...

A month, a year, however long it takes.

And meanwhile, if you want
to see some real police work,

step inside.

Fitz, dude, you got to check
this out. It's friggin' sweet.

- You're up.
- We analyzed the postal steam

of the whole West Coast,
and we traced the path

of every Unabom letter and package

from the moment it
dropped into a mailbox

to sorting and distro to

final delivery, where we identified
two critical choke points.

So, if Unabom decides to keep

dropping his mail in the Bay
Area, there is a 95% chance...

"Dad, it is I" tells us he likes

word games and puzzles,

and that he thinks he's
smarter than everyone,

and that he can be sneaking on by us.

- _
- It's kind of true, 'cause

no one here noticed

'cause you all underestimated him.

He has problems talking people.

That's why he resorts to cyphers.

- _
- And he's probably got Daddy issues.

Now,

I got all this from a one-page letter.

- _
- Imagine what I would get

- _
- off a 56-page manifesto.

Oh, yeah.

Now, that's my partner, right there.

You'll get your 56 pages
after forensics is finished.

Goodbye.

You're telling yourself

that you're the ones in control.

They obey you,

your technology,

your machines.

But what would you do without your car,

your telephone?

What if all the airplanes just stopped?

Ten years ago computers were expensive toys.

Today civilisation as we know
would fall apart without them.

You live in terror of a blackout,

a computer crash and a car won't start

a phone doesn't ring.

So you construct your lives,

your whole society so that won't happen.

Everything revolves around their needs,
not yours.

They buzz, you jump.
They beep, you answer.

So ask yourself.

Who's really in control?

You?

Or them?

I opened a letter
from the Unabomber.

You work at the San Francisco chronicle...

You're the only person who touched this?

I'm just an editorial intern.

I just open letters to the
editor as they come in.

But I-I could have died.

I could have been, like,
blown up or something.

Yeah, but you weren't and
a lot of people might be,

so count your blessings and shut up.

- What do you got?
- Chief, you ready?

It's bad. "Warning...

"The terrorist group FC",
called 'Unabomber' by the FBI,

is planning to blow
up an airliner out of

Los Angeles International Airport

sometime during the next six days.

To prove that the writer of
this letters knows something

about FC, the first two digits
of their identifying number

"are 55." Is that number a match?

What's the number he sent The Times?

What's the authentication
number FC sent The Times?

553254394.

It's him.

Trisha, get Director Freeh on the phone,

L.A.P.D. Commissioner, FAA,
and alert Janet Reno's Office,

and make it clear we have

a potential mass-casualty situation.

When a letter arrived at
a San Francisco newspaper

threatening to blow up an airliner...

They say it bears all the
marks of the Unabomber.

Federal officials believe
the sender is the terrorist

who has been sending bombs...

The Unabomber appears
to be ready to strike again.

This time the threatened
target is a jetliner

flying out of Los Angeles.

Frederick Benjamin Isaac Wood, FBI Wood.

Uh-huh, but those were planes
with depleted fuel tanks.

- Return address 549...
- Here we're talking about

fully fueled jetliners
within a shrapnel radius

of an explosive device of
unknown size and power.

How much fuel is in a 747
that's about to take off?

Phil, now tell me where we are
on refraction beam scanners.

- Uh-huh. right. So now you see...
- No, it's got to be mobile.

You can't bring items into
the airport to be scanned.

Jesus, Phil.

You got to do it on the runway.

We got to just do it plane by plane.

- Unbelievable.
- Okay, two-one breach...

Lucas. hey, can I... can
I borrow your pen, please?

- Thank you.
- Two, one, three.

So, you can read it.

Yeah.

What is this?

The forensic report.

300 pages that say we found nothing.

I don't want the report.
The document, his document, his manifesto.

Yeah, over there.
No one else wanted one.

What?

Well you're talking about 3 different
dossiers and I don't have them.

Hold on a second.

For 17 years, the Unabomber
has been trying to say something

with these bombs, trying
to send us a message,

and now he lays it out,
everything he's been trying to tell us,

and you don't
want to take the time to read it?

We're dealing with a major
airport shutdown here,

so write up a three-page
synopsis, clean, no typos,

and we'll give it a look.

Yep. All right.

We're at about 30%, but it looks like

all the big databases
are up and searchable.

IRS, USPS...

Social security?

_

_

FC's authentication
number looks a lot like

a social security number. So I did a search.

It's a match.

The number belongs to
a guy named Alan Meeks.

40-year-old white male.

Then I crunched the USPS data.

Look where Meeks has been
living for the past 30 years.

Oakland, San Francisco,

Salt Lake City, Sacramento.

It's all the key locations
associated with Unabom activity.

- Where is he now?
- He's already in custody.

They arrested Meeks right here.

Recognize the place?

Yeah, Rentech... it's the site
of the Hugh Scrutton bomb.

The Unabomber's first kill

returning to the scene of the crime.

They're getting Meeks ready
for interrogation right now,

and I got to know if
Meeks is the Unabomber.

What was he looking for here?

Why'd you come back? Why this place?

Computer rental store.

Computers. Technology.

What did these people symbolize to you?

You got to work early, you
didn't expect them to be there.

10 seconds, 20 seconds...
That's all you needed.

But she looked, and suddenly the
Unabomber was flesh and blood.

A man, not a concept, and that's
why this scared you so much.

That's why you stopped for six years...

Hey, Hugh?

Phyllis, do you have that invoice

from Phoenix Games and Hobbies?

I'm trying to get this stuff
out the door before we open.

Phyllis?

Are you in the bathroom?

... Even though it
felt good to finally succeed.

He was reliving it, savoring it.

Which he never got to do in
'85 because of the eyewitness.

Meeks is ready! Let's get over there.

This could really be him.

"Pure Wood." Read 'em and weep, Fitzy.

That's the Unabomber.

T-h-e-n.

Thicker than water.

It's not him.

It's a spelling mistake. So what?

You get drunk, you get a tattoo...

I don't remember seeing a spelling
mistake in all those letters.

Does this guy look like
the author of a manifesto

entitled "industrial
society and its future"?

He sure does to me.

- I definitely didn't mean to kill anyone.
That's for damn sure.

So tell me how to stop LAX.

What's LAX?

If you make this hard for me...

- I didn't mean to kill anybody.
- ... I will make your life

- a living nightmare.
- I can't take back what I did,

and I'll live with this
the rest of my life.

I paid my debts to society.

Wait.

- Excuse me?
- Eight years, Iowa State Pen.

I came out a changed man.
I learned my lesson.

I never drove drunk again.
Not once, I swear.

Meeks was in jail half the time
the Unabomber was active.

- How come that wasn't in my file?
- We pulled everything we could...

Cali, Federal. You're
telling me you don't have

Iowa Bureau of prisons
records in your MPP?

- Didn't we do this before?
- It's just for our files.

Here.

What's "Pure Wood"?

Pure area in Peckerwood.

Their ain't no jungle-bunny
blood in these veins.

Right.

She's thicker than water, right?

Thicker than what?

Thicker than water.

"Wudder"?

Well, where the hell you from?

And who talks like that?
Y'all here that... "Wudder"?

Christ.

Fitz, let's go.

The extraordinary precautions come

because a letter was mailed
to the San Francisco newspaper

from a man the FBI
calls "the Unabomber."

Anything?

- Wudder under the bridge.
- Damn. You heard that, too?

What Fitz has with his hoagie.

Wudder?

Tabster, stone cold.

- Come on. Philly.
- Fitz,

- Burkhardt, conference room.
- I've never heard you say pierogi,

but you do say wudder.

Water. Water.

I like wudder. It's part of who you are.

So, one word, one tiny slip, and
you think you know who I am?

Are you seriously pissed off?

About what?

I said one word slightly wrong,
and you can all peg me

as the Philly street
cop out of his depth.

Fitz! Now!

Dude! Are you serious?

New Unabom letter sent to The Times.

- What?
- New York is faxing it through.

Jesus! Greg, I got to go!

Look at page 3.

Is this guy jerking us around or what?

"Since the public has a short memory,

"we decided to play one last 'prank'

"to remind them who we are.

"But no, we haven't
tried to plant a bomb

"on an airliner recently."

Recently is in parentheses.

He says it's a prank.

Yes, Sir. One last prank.

and we're certain it's from the Unabomber?

It's been authenticated, Sir.

It is definitely from the Unabomber.

And we will get you our recommendation.

What if he's just trying
to get our guard down?

He's got a bomb in one of those planes,

just waiting for us to clear them
for takeoff, and then boom.

We get another Lockerbie
on my watch because

I took a serial bomber at his word.

Personally, I think this
whole manifesto thing

could be a red herring.

We're dealing with a dummy here,

an airline mechanic with a G.E.D., Max.

So, who's to say he didn't
retype somebody else's essay

to throw us off the scent,
to draw us down blind alleys,

to keep us away from the
real leads in the real world...

Forensics.

Sir, now that the manifesto
has cleared forensics,

I think it's imperative that our
agents read this document.

Okay, stop.

The Unabomber has threatened

to blow an airplane out of the sky.

I've got four Senators and
Janet Reno on my call sheet,

asking me whether
to believe this letter,

where he says he's going to kill
a few hundred innocent people,

or this one, where he says
the bomb threat is just a prank.

So, I'm not reading anything else.

I'm reading this and trying to decide

whether LAX can reopen for business.

And if I make the wrong call,

a few hundred people are
gonna be blown out of the sky.

So give me a profile
that answers that question.

If not, that's a stack of papers.

These are human lives.

Got it?

Okay. What do we got?

Dude, have you read this?
In the manifesto? Listen.

"In modern society, all that's
required of you is obedience."

Isn't that exactly what Cole said?

The manifesto has to wait.
There are lives at stake.

The Unabomber and his bomb threat prank.

Which one's the truth?

How could we possibly know that?

_

You know, Fitz, whatever
it is you're going through,

it didn't start two years ago.
It didn't start with this case.

It happened long before
the Unabom. It must have.

I know.

I just don't know when I
started to feel so powerless.

Hey, we all feel that
way. Everyone does.

If everybody feels that way,
what do we do about it?

Nothing.

We like it.

We like feeling trapped,

crushed.

I guess freedom is far more
terrifying than slavery.

But there's nothing to do.

It's life. You suck it up and you live.

That's not... that's
not life. That's not living.

That's sleepwalking.

Watching TV, eating trash,

working to...

to become something for someone else.

And nobody does anything about it.

Nobody even tries.
Nobody except for Ted.

Yeah, but, Fitz, he's the Unabomber.

He's evil.

Just down here.

_

You gonna be okay?

I don't know.

I have to go in there
I have to face him.

Go.

_

Is there a bomb on a plane, FC,
or is it a prank?

Boss needs these
reports clean. No typos.

Cole wouldn't be happy, FC.

_

Excessive soldering.

This is the original letter.

Look, he punched
right through the paper,

not just crossing out his
mistakes... obliterating.

Profilers talk about
signatures versus M.O.

M.O. is everything necessary
to complete the crime,

but signatures are the extras.

They reveal the
psychology, the character.

Damn. Like correcting
the hell out of that letter.

Yeah, that's right.

But, uh, the Rentech bomb,

the forensic report says
something about excessive soldering.

His signature, definitely.

How do you know that?

Don't worry. It's just a mock-up.

But it's the exact copy of the way
that bomb looked before it blew up.

You built this?

What's wrong with you?

You sure you're not the Unabomber?

And all this as forensic evidence?

Yes, sir.

I built this and a few others.

Bosses thought it was a waste of time,

but I learned a lot by doing it.

He carves "FC" on the most
indestructible component of each bomb...

The part that he's sure
will survive the blast.

Just to make sure we know it's him.

Like the excess soldering,

he just floods all the connections
like he's trying to hide them,

then there's tons of extra
epoxy all at the joints that

no one seemed to report.

Totally unnecessary.
Just slathered it on.

Signatures. Not M.O.

He didn't want anyone to see the cracks.

What's your name again?

Ernie Esposito.

Thanks, Ernie.

This is my analysis on
the LAX bomb threat.

It's clean, no typos, lots of big words.

Janet Reno will read it, and
she'll be impressed by you.

What's the bottom line?

Well, in my opinion, it's a prank.

There's no bomb at LAX

FC cares about his
reputation, his credibility.

He's ashamed of his mistakes,
and he tries to obliterate them.

He tries to hide all
the joints in his bombs

so we don't see the work.

He's obsessed with presenting
this perfect public image.

He wants to be seen
as intelligent, as logical,

as superior. But it's

a fragile self image,
because he's really just

afraid that everyone's
gonna see his flaws.

Now, the bomb threat, that
services his need for power.

You know, he enjoys making
us squirm, but his reputation,

that's the most important thing he has.

And he's not gonna give
us the ammunition to go

to the press so they can hold up
something that he wrote and say,

"this guy's untrustworthy, he's a liar,

"he's a blood-thirsty lunatic
who has no credibility

"and will say anything to kill people."

It's just all my opinion, but, um,

you know, I can back it up.
Including the physical evidence,

I stand by it.

The thing about Fitz...

He's no B.S.Er, for better for worse.

Okay, we're gonna read it
and pass it up the chain.

Thanks for this.

This might cross Janet
Reno's desk, so stay close.

You listen to me, you get a gold star.

A little obedience is all it takes.

I think FC says that
in the manifesto, too.

You can put that in your
three-page summary.

Leadership tips from the Unabomber.

Now we dig in.

He wrote 56 pages,

laying out his philosophy
of the modern world.

He called it "industrial
society and its future."

We call it his "manifesto."

So, he sends the bombs as messages.

He's struggling to make himself heard.

So, what's the message?

- Technology sucks?
- All right, technology sucks.

And we are basically screwed.

The Unabomber just opened
a door into his mind.

We need to step through it, so...

Opening line,

"the industrial revolution
and its consequences

"have been a disaster
for the human race.

"Technology was supposed
to set us free, but it doesn't.

Like the car thing. Cars
were invented, and then,

we're all suddenly free
to go wherever we want.

But then, basically, it becomes
mandatory to have a car.

So, instead of becoming more
free, we've become more limited,

- more constrained.
- I mean, every city

in society is all rearranged

around cars until you
can't even buy food

without driving somewhere.
I mean, they're forced upon us.

Yeah, TV seemed harmless, too,
before we flipped it around.

We put CCTV cameras everywhere
and turned it into a tool to watch us.

We can't even drive
fast if we're in a hurry

- or slow if we want to chill out.
- We started in charge.

Now we're slaves to our own technology.

"Human beings are being
permanently reduced

"to engineered products, and mere cogs

"in the social machine,
deprived of dignity,

"autonomy, and freedom."

The only option available
to us is obedience.

- _
- We're being turned into caged rats,

distracted from the maze
by the meaningless cheese

we're running after...
Status, promotion, money,

nicer cars, bigger houses, more TVs,

blasted with entertainment,
adjusted with therapy

and Prozac till you don't
even want to be free anymore.

Or if you can't be adjusted,

the psych ward.

Or prison.

The only alternative,
the only hope for us,

the only way to break free...

... is to blow the whole thing up.

I'm ready.

Kaczynski, you ready?

Ted, as your attorney, I'm
begging you to reconsider this.

Do not go in there
alone with Fitzgerald.

It is unthinkably reckless
for the defendant in

a capital case to, "A," talk
with the arresting agent,

and "B," do so without counsel present.

This is a huge risk for you.

And there's no reason to take it.
Let me come in there with you.

I'll stay out of the way, just
observe, and be ready to step in.

I'll be in the next room the whole time.

All you need to do to end the
interview is to ask for me, okay?

We need a guilty plea from Ted.

This is our only shot.

You're our only shot.

Right.

Give us a second.

We know Ted Kaczynski's the Unabomber,

but we can't go to trial.

This case hangs on so many
different technicalities.

If we go before a jury,
if we roll that dice...

These are dangerous, uncertain times.

Look at Waco. Look at O.J.

Even the Menendez
brothers hung their juries.

The Unabomber has an IQ of 168.

Think about that... 168.

If Ted Kaczynski goes
to trial, he could walk.

If he walks, he disappears.

If he disappears, he's back in action.

Only this time, we'll never find him.

The guilty plea is the only way
to make sure that doesn't happen.

Listen, Fitz.

I think Ted

asked for you because he
recognized a kindred spirit.

Play into that.

Make him feel smart,
understood, sympathized with.

Build a connection, but stay opaque.

Don't give him too much.

He knows you as well
as you know him. Better.

He's gonna be probing you
for weaknesses all the time,

looking for anything to go against us.

Get him talking, build a connection,

then start to steer him
towards the guilty plea.

You're trying to help him,

trying to save him
from the electric chair.

You're his only
friend, but do it gently.

Don't spook him, okay?

Get him there.

Okay.

Agent Fitzgerald?

I am so glad to make
your acquaintance at last.

When would be a good time for you?

I already talked to Kim
about taking the days

Nancy says she can cover for me,
and Mom would watch the boys.

So,

just tell me when. But I took it.

Good to hear it.

That's great.

Uh,

why don't you just call
me back when I won't be

- just talking to myself.
- Oh, no. No, no. I'm here.

I'm here. I'm listening. I am.

It's just,

you know...

You know...

What's going on with you?

I'm just gonna call you back.

Okay. Okay, bye.

Um, that's for today.

Fitz. Right now.

We've looked at the FAA reports,

L.A.P.D and airport briefings,

read the material S.A.C. Ackerman sent.

Based on what we've seen,

A.G.'s office is good to
sign off on reopening LAX.

How about you, Bill?

FAA is good with that.

FBI Director Freeh here.

I'll confirm that from our end

and give the green
light to flight control.

Flight control,

I see the green light here,
good to reopen runways.

First plane should be up momentarily.

Flight control, this is S.A.C. Ackerman,

permission to stay on the line?

Affirmative, agent.

The Unabomb device that almost blew up

American airlines 444 was
triggered by an altimeter

set to blow up at 20,000 feet.

American flight 7 is airborne.

United 732 airborne.

TWA one-niner-niner airborne.

This is American flight 7.

We are climbing to 15,000 feet.

Climbing to 20,000.

Check in uniform 7.

We're approaching 10,000.

KLM 206, we're climbing now.

KLM 206, cruising altitude, over.

Approaching cruising altitude.

American flight 7,

we're at 25,000, reaching
cruising altitude now.

Approaching cruising altitude, over.

All clear. All clear.
You hear that, agent?

Loud and clear.

Thank God.

- You made the right call.
- I shouldn't have made any call.

All those people on the plane,

and it was based on
what, on some letters?

It was the right call.

You really think you can
get something good

out of this manifesto?
Something worthwhile?

Yeah. yeah, I think I can.

Okay.

I'm giving you an office.

And a team, if you want it.

Maybe you'll even read
the manifesto now.

I will. We all will.

Actually, I already tried to read it.

Oh, no, I did.

But, come on, end notes
and all these dead sentences.

Who writes like this?

Who writes like this?

Fitz?

Who writes like this?

_

When I say "wudder,"

you learn everything about me.

One tiny word, one tiny mistake,

and you can tell I'm from
Philly, blue-collar, local school,

fan of Dave Schultz. Just
like when you say "bruh,"

it could only be from
San Francisco, right?

What if there's a wudder or

bruh in here, in the manifesto?

I mean, how do we even
start to look for that?

I don't know. Read it again.

And then what?

Read it again.

Oh, boy.

Get some coffee on then, bruh.

_

Agent Fitzgerald.

Long way from Montana.

Oh, yeah, well,

most people carry their cage
with them wherever they go.

At least if I remain
disgusted by this place,

I know I'm still alive.

Still free in here.

So why me?

Why you? You wrote the
document that put me in here.

Your linguistic analysis
of the manifesto

got them the search
warrant, the search warrant

- got them the evidence...
- The document that put you

in here you wrote.

I am becoming very

well-acquainted with your work.

It is the product of great imagination.

What I really appreciate
about you is that most people

take language for granted, but not you.

You saw it differently,
and that is the first step

toward becoming free...
A shift in perspective.

Manifesto, for instance...

I never liked that moniker.

It makes it sound like an
unconsidered rant, and

you and I both appreciate the power

and specificity of words.

Manifesto versus article,

insanity versus enlightenment,

mental breakdown versus

unextended leave from active duty.

You have had a change of life

circumstance,

since your work on the
Unabomb case, am I wrong?

- Yeah, I have.
- Because of what I allegedly wrote?

- Yeah.
- What was it?

Just between us.

When did it all click?

No?

Well, for me, uh,

it all began in Chicago.

One day, this mockingbird began
singing in the backyard there,

you know, that puffed-up confidence

just belting out his song, and

I began to realize

that the mockingbird
is singing the car alarm.

Ba-beep, ba-beep. You know the one?

Rrr, rrr. And I... I just sat there,

listening to that poor,
dumb bird for maybe

an hour straight, thinking,

"what have we done?"

How wrong that was, and

it stuck with me.

I kept coming back to it,
just trying to figure out

where in the world we had gone so wrong

that it had ended up here.

For me, it was the part about driving.

Every time I got in the car,

I thought about it.

The more I drove,
the more it made sense.

Like, there was this one night
I was driving home from work,

and there was nobody on
the street, I mean, nobody.

And I'm sitting there at a red light,

just waiting, waiting.

And there's no cars anywhere.

But, still, I sat there. I obeyed.

That's when I realized
it's not about technology,

it's not about machines.

It's about what they're doing to us.

It's about what they're doing to
us. What they do to our hearts,

'cause our hearts are no longer free.

- And you wanted to be free.
- Right.

You wanted your human
dignity, your autonomy.

- Yeah.
- Everybody wants that.

People want it so badly,
they're dying by the thousands

every day, just trying to
salvage some of their humanity.

- Okay...
- Think about this,

more people have died
from suicide in just the time

we've been talking than I allegedly
killed in my entire career.

More people died from anti-depressants,

plastic surgery, fast food. Why...

W-why is everybody so terrified of me?

And ask yourself this question...

Why are these men in suits so desperate

to prove that I'm crazy?

I will tell you.

It's because they know that I'm right.

I'm awake.

- They're asleep.
- Yeah.

And they're terrified they
might have to wake up, too,

and turn off their
cellphones and their TVs

and their video games,

and face themselves the
way that you and I have.

You and I?

You and I.

Ted, I came here 'cause
I believe in what you wrote.

Good.

I think you asked me here
'cause you need an ally

to help save your life, so you
can spread your message

and change things.

Really change things. Right?

Right.

Now, I've gone through all your
options. I think a guilty plea...

No.

No.

And he was doing so well.

I can talk about my options
with any one of these

barbary apes watching
through the cameras.

But I chose you

because I thought you were different.

Next time,

you might bring me some
writing paper and some stamps.

They're so stingy in here,

and I have so much correspondence.

It's really quite overwhelming.

Thank you.

- _
- I do know the Unabomber.

Be smart, patient...

extremely precise.

And he's angry.

I know him like I know myself.

No more feelings. No more theories.
Hit him hard with the facts.

James, do you really not have any idea
why I brought you here?

We've got 24 hours before this blows up.

Fitz!

That's the option
that we're neglecting to mention

while I get
all this evidence for now.

And I walk away a free man.

They both are***
Do you understand me?

Now I know he's got 10 PhDs
and a 500 IQ...

but he's still a serial killer, right?

*** every piece of writing that came in.

I mean thousands of possibilities

only knocked on one door.

F.B.I., freeze!

You can only study the manifesto
down to the letter

and the best that you'll ever be

is a feable imitation of me.