Bleecker Street has released the official trailer for Musk, Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney’s new documentary about Elon Musk. The nearly four-hour film premiered out of competition at the 83rd Venice Film Festival on September 8, screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and is set to hit theaters on October 9, Variety reports.
Elon Musk was not involved in the production in any way and has already responded with harsh words to the director. Below we present what Gibney claims in his film, what was the reaction of Musk and the media, and why the picture given by the documentary leaves out a large part of the truth.
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What Alex Gibney argues in the Musk documentary
Gibney is known for his critically acclaimed documentaries, including those about Enron, WikiLeaks and Scientology. His new film follows Musk’s journey from Zip2 and PayPal to Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, X and his partnership with Donald Trump. According to the director himself, as he told Reuters, the film is about “how absolute power corrupts” and wants to open a conversation about how citizens can take back power from “tech oligarchs.”
The accusations made in the film are heavy and represent the opinions of the director and the people involved. According to NPR, Gibney describes Musk as a businessman who built his power on overvalued stocks. The film revisits the well-known dispute over who founded Tesla, with the testimony of co-founder Martin Eberhard. It devotes a large part to the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems, which it links to fatal accidents, and deals with Musk's personal life.
The second half of the film turns to politics. According to the Hollywood Reporter, it examines Musk's four-month stint as head of the government efficiency agency DOGE and cuts to USAID, while Wired's Katie Drummond talks about "conflicts of interest." The film also suggests that Starlink was used to influence the 2024 election, a claim for which, as IBTimes, there is no evidence.
A digital Musk who never gave an interview
The most talked-about element of the film is technological. After Musk refused to be interviewed, Gibney created a computer-generated digital “doppelganger” of him, who “answers” questions with phrases from Musk’s public statements. The voice is synchronized with the help of artificial intelligence, and in some scenes, the digital Musk appears inside a video game. The director says the idea came from Musk’s own view that we might be living in a simulation.
The film features appearances from Musk's father Errol, his first wife Justine Musk, Ashley St. Clair, former USAID administrator Samantha Power, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, artificial intelligence researcher Geoffrey Hinton, and journalists Kara Swisher and Zoë Schiffer, according to Gold Derby. Most of them are people who have publicly criticized Musk.
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Elon Musk's answer
Musk responded via X in his usual sharp style. He called the film a “missing attack” and said it committed “the mortal sin of being boring for four hours,” as the Guardian. He wrote that Gibney has “zero integrity” and that he simply “put together a list of people who either have something against him or don’t even know him.” His lawyer, according to the Hollywood Reporter, sent a legal notice to the production team.
Criticism also came from within his circle. Katie Miller, former DOGE communications director, pointed out that the film is almost entirely absent from people who know and work closely with Musk. This element is central: a four-hour portrait relies mainly on voices who see the entrepreneur from a distance or have clashed with him.
What caused the media
The film was a topic of discussion from the very beginning. In Venice, the audience gave it a standing ovation for four minutes, while major film media outlets, such as Deadline and the Hollywood Reporter, called it a harsh and revealing portrait. Other commentators focused on its length and the fact that the film was expanded from two to four hours when Musk entered politics, with financing from HBO, which holds the television rights in North America.
A separate discussion was also opened about the use of a digital doppelganger of a real person. Even if the words come from public statements, the choice, order and context in which they are placed belong to the director. The SecNews technical team believes that this is a precedent that deserves attention, in an era where deepfakes are already making it difficult for the public to distinguish what is real.
The other side: what doesn't fit in four hours
What the film advocates are, ultimately, the opinions of Alex Gibney and his interlocutors. And no matter how harsh the criticism, it can hardly erase what Musk has achieved. SpaceX made reusable rockets a daily occurrence and drastically reduced the cost of accessing space. Starlink brings fast internet to remote areas, to ships, and to areas affected by natural disasters or wars. Tesla made the electric car a mass product and forced the entire automotive industry to accelerate the transition.
Even in the trailer itself, a voiceover calls him “the greatest capitalist in history.” NPR also notes that the three goals set by the young Musk—developing the internet, transitioning to sustainable energy, and exploring space—have remained consistent over the years. Few entrepreneurs can say they’ve implemented such an ambitious vision across so many different sectors.
The Musk documentary will be a hot topic in the coming weeks, and rightfully so. But a film that relies heavily on critics, leaves out his close associates, and has a digital doppelganger speak for him is hardly a complete portrait. It is the gaze of a filmmaker with a clear point of view. The editorial team at SecNews believes that history will judge Elon Musk primarily by the rockets that land, the networks that connect the world, and the cars that change an entire industry, and less by a four-hour cinematic indictment.
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