The story of The Bomber is an adaptation of a true story.
Ted, who lives alone in a forest cabin, lives a life without running water and technology. Thin and sloppy, he can sometimes stay out of the house for a month. But if you open your mouth, you will find that this person is quick-witted and logically clear. For eighteen years, Ted mailed 18 bombs to university and airline planes, killing three and injuring 23. In 1995, Ted put pressure on three major American newspapers to publish his academic paper "On Industrial Society and its Future" in full, or the next bomb would be sent at any time. The paper was published in full in The Washington Post, and the paper gained widespread attention around the world. FBI agents solved the mystery based on the linguistic features in Ted's paper and the assistance of Ted's younger brother. The case also became one of the most expensive in FBI history.
The play has a total of 8 episodes. The first 4 episodes use the time line to cut and overlap to introduce the survey writer Fiz who was sent to the FBI to assist in the investigation, and was frustrated everywhere by the FBI. When he started reading Ted's "On Industrial Society and Its Future," he became obsessed with using the linguistic features of the paper to prove the bomber's identity. The shooting timeline of the first four episodes has been shuttled between 1995 and 1997. In 1995, it was difficult to find clues. Fiz was in a hurry to prove his status in the FBI bureau. In 1997, he felt helpless when he was interrogated face-to-face with Ted. The IQ167 criminal with high IQ and the excellent but cramped profiler, the criminal and the policeman who caught him are the people who are most familiar with each other. The persuasion of psychological warfare and attacking the logical loopholes of the other party is tense and exciting. Only at this time did he further discover the genius of this high-IQ bomber. Comparing it with the stubborn officials in the office, I can understand why the case could not be solved in 18 years.
Episode 5, the fog begins to crack. After the paper was published, Ted's younger brother sent evidence to the FBI based on the views and writing methods of the paper, and finally the mystery of the bomber's identity was gradually solved.
The plot begins to turn to the narrative of Ted's life story. In Ted's letter, he recounted his life "betrayed, betrayed, betrayed". Bright boy, good test scores, parents asked him to skip grades, had to get along with his older classmates, and was awkward. The first best friend abandoned him after he had a girlfriend, and he made explosives in a chemistry lab class and lost the friend ever since.
At the age of 16, he was admitted to Harvard University. He met a respected mentor and communicated with each other for more than a year. It turned out that he was only used as an experiment in a brainwashing project, and he was constantly subjected to mental torture and abuse. The time at Harvard was the happiest time for Ted, because finally there was a highly respected professor who was willing to listen to and communicate with the boy's inner thoughts. The time at Harvard was also the most tragic, and Ted was repeatedly subjected to experimental abuse for 18 months, tormenting his spirit. He said, but I still go back to the lab again and again, just to prove that you can't destroy me. The final project failed, but Ted was left with a lifetime of pain.
Ted once worked as a math teacher at Berkeley, and later worked for his brother's phone company. He was dismissed by his brother as a hooligan who wrote poems and abused girls. After betrayal again and again, Ted walked into the cabin and lived a primitive life. To make his voice heard, he sent 16 bombs. Lying in the cabin, he said, my life should not be like this. My dissertation has been published and I have started over again, is there any chance.
But when he took the gift to the birthday party of the little boy who really treated him, he saw the roughness of his gift, and he gave up again. Then, his life was nothing but prison.
He still can't feel and respond, what he's really looking for in his heart, love and respect.
He came to the FBI detention center. Ted and Fiz had several face-to-face conversations, and Fiz thought he was strong enough to confront Ted and convince him to plead guilty. But every time, he was refuted by Ted's cold reason.
The last time Ted felt betrayal came from the team of lawyers. The female lawyer Judy ties Ted with a tie and secretly delivers chocolates. After learning about the project experiment that Ted suffered at Harvard, she wants to use the paranoid syndrome to reduce the sentence for Ted, instead of letting him use the image of a normal person as his own. defend. The last conversation between fiz and Ted became the last reed that bent the mind.
To live as a psychopathic pervert, or to plead guilty to his theories, Ted chose the latter. Ted received three life sentences and thirty years in prison. He has lost forever the way of presenting his ideas in public.
He got the worst punishment, not being respected, not feeling and responding, and what he was missing was love.
At the end of the story, I felt a deep sense of powerlessness. That is, the film does not bring us the redemption of reunion, but only shocks again and again. If Ted received the criticism and attention he deserved when he first made the cannonball, would he still choose to use the bomb to make noise in the future? If he cared more about him as a child, would he have given up that cruel experiment earlier during his time at Harvard? Would he have been better off without the Harvard experiment?
Maybe not. What Ted is deeply rooted in is actually his academic proposition, his pessimistic view of industrialized society, his pursuit of returning to natural traditions, and his aversion to the distortion of civilization by industrialization. In a modern society where he doesn't fit in, and lacks a sense of control, maybe he is destined to be a contradictory person.
During the filming of episode 6, many people criticized whether the screenwriter forced whitewashing. Of course, I searched for a lot of Ted's childhood deeds. His parents regarded him as a symbol of the halo, constantly skipping grades, ignoring his needs, making him more and more wanting to break away from resistance. But there is also information that Ted in high school was not as withdrawn as in the film. He was active in many clubs and became the darling of teachers. The devastation of the Harvard experiment was too painful, and it also became the fuse for Ted to grow into a criminal.
The pain is so extreme that you can't please yourself by hurting others. Walking into the prison, of course, is a statement of justice, and the crime deserves it. But can Ted's heart be redeemed for sin?
Ordinary people like me, the biggest reminder is probably to pay more attention to the people around you and give them a little helping love. With yourself, pay attention to your heart.
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