Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’ expands nationwide Friday after Elon Musk’s social media attacks

The Story

‘Musk,’ Alex Gibney’s documentary on Elon Musk, is set to expand nationwide on Friday after playing in select theatres in New York and Los Angeles.

In the weeks leading up to the film’s theatrical run, Musk posted on X that Gibney is an “idiot,” a “horrible human,” a “shill for the far left,” and a “tinfoil hat crackpot” with “zero credibility,” and said the documentary was a “hit piece” when it was announced three years ago.

After the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival last month, Musk wrote that dog feces are “worth more respect than Gibney.” Musk has reportedly not yet seen the documentary and did not respond to a request for comment.

Beyond the online dispute, the documentary has also encountered advertising hurdles. Its distributor, Bleecker Street, said it was not able to run paid advertisements for ‘Musk’ on several major social media platforms, including YouTube, Meta, TikTok and X as of Sept. 25.

YouTube and Meta later reversed course, with Meta saying the trailer had been flagged for “political content.”

Gibney said he expects the political and legal pressure surrounding the film to reflect a world he describes as “pay to play.” He also said the project has prompted threats of lawsuits from Musk’s camp, while Gibney continued posting on X from both his own account and a newly created account, @muskfilmfacts, aimed at dispelling what he describes as false narratives.

Gibney also addressed concerns about whether the film would eventually reach HBO, which was originally planned following the Skydance merger.

In describing the documentary’s approach, Gibney said the film began as an investigation into “21st century power” and evolved as Musk accumulated what he called “the power of a kind of shadow president.” He said Musk did not sit for an interview, so the filmmakers used a computer-generated Musk speaking directly to camera.

Gibney said the computer-generated voice and the words delivered are Musk’s own, drawn from recordings of Musk interviews and public appearances, and that artificial intelligence was used to help sync the words to the mouth.

The documentary’s nearly four-hour runtime includes on-camera interviews with Musk’s family members, including his father Errol Musk, as well as journalists, business associates, former friends, colleagues and government officials.

One element that has drawn particular attention is a reference to “space lasers” and the 2024 U.S. presidential election, linked to a text exchange between Musk and Ashley St. Clair, described as the mother of one of Musk’s children. The film includes Musk writing that he has “10,000 lasers in space right now.”

The material is described as presenting the text messages without making the kind of claim Musk’s supporters and lawyers have used it to promote.

St. Clair also provides an audio recording described as involving Jared Birchall trying to negotiate an NDA with her, with parental support contingent after she gave birth to their child. Gibney said she turned down some $40 million to maintain her right to speak freely.

Gibney said the project, which he described as a “runaway story,” was under development for nearly four years, and he also said he learned from making his Scientology documentary ‘Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief’ that the best way to respond is to “not let them get inside your head.”

‘Musk’ is also described as including an alternative, six-hour version, though Gibney said it was edited down to focus on the most pressing information, including questions about data gathered on U.S. citizens during Musk’s DOGE tenure.

In Venice, Gibney said that after the first 45 minutes, audiences may feel inclined to root for Musk before shifting to broader questions about what happened, and he said he hopes viewers go beyond criticism of the film to consider whether investigations are needed.