In an era when documentaries about famous people can be as light and sweet as the snacks you eat while watching them, Alex Gibney is going against the grain. His new documentary, “Musk,” which premiered at Venice Film Festival on Sept. 8, proves there’s still room for hard-hitting investigative docs in Hollywood — as long as you’re willing to sit through its nearly four-hour runtime.
From tackling Scientology in “Going Clear” to Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes in “The Inventor,” Gibney has never backed away from a thorny topic. With “Musk,” the Oscar-winning filmmaker pulls no punches, painting a thorough portrait of the man who turned companies like Tesla and SpaceX into household names.
The doc, which traces Musk’s life from 20-something Silicon Valley start-up entrepreneur to becoming President Donald Trump’s right-hand man during his second term, has ignited the ire of its subject since it was announced in 2023. At the time, Musk called the film a “hit piece” on X, to which Gibney responded, “How would you know?” The two have been locked in an online battle ever since.
Although Musk did not sit down for an interview for “Musk,” that didn’t stop Gibney from getting his subject on camera — sort of.
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Thanks to the ingenuity of Gibney’s team and the magic of AI, the documentary features a Musk avatar who’s been trained on all available interviews the mogul has given. Avatar-Musk shows up throughout to comment on everything from why he believes we’re all living in a simulation to his obsession with going to Mars.
It’s a cheeky deployment of emerging technology at the CEO’s expense. But it’s not the only segment that paints Musk in an unflattering light.
Business Insider screened “Musk” the day it premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Here are three times Gibney goes after Musk hard.
Business Insider reached out to Musk for comment on the documentary, but did not receive a response.
The failures of Tesla’s self-driving feature Autopilot are back in the spotlight
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The documentary delves into how Musk got involved in Tesla and turned it into a cash cow once the company went public. It also explores the darker side of Tesla’s Autopilot, a self-driving feature that has been at the center of several lawsuits.
In the doc, Gibney contrasts a 2016 video released by Tesla that depicts the vehicle as fully self-driving with dash-cam footage from a deadly 2019 crash in which a car using Tesla’s Autopilot feature killed one and seriously injured another in Key Largo, Florida.
After a Russian hacker was able to retrieve key crash data Tesla had said it could not access (yes, really), a jury ruled that Tesla was partially liable for the crash and responsible for $243 million in punitive and compensatory damages. Tesla is appealing.
While the story has been reported before by outlets including Business Insider, its retelling to a larger audience in Gibney’s doc isn’t going to improve perception of the Tesla brand.
The ‘Godfather of AI’ says he’s worried Musk could rig an election
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Trump and Musk have described DOGE as a way to overhaul the federal government and slash spending. Tech reporters from Wired and The Wall Street Journal tell Gibney that Musk’s time working on DOGE also gave him access to every American’s personal information.
Geoffrey Hinton, the “Godfather of AI” and a friend-turned-frenemy of Musk’s, says he thinks Musk is up to something nefarious. He tells Gibney in the documentary that he believes Musk will use that information to corrupt the upcoming midterm elections.
“If you wanted to corrupt the midterm elections and you wanted to use AI, all you needed to do was get detailed information on US citizens,” Hinton says in “Musk.” “And what DOGE did looked like just what you would do.”
Hinton does not elaborate further, but Gibney wonders in a voiceover: Is Musk “trying to connect us or control us?”
A former flame reveals the NDA terms she declined and Musk’s desire for a ‘legion of children’
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The documentary also delves into Musk’s personal life, specifically his many children, 14 of whom are publicly known. While Musk’s first wife, Justine, appears in the doc, the real star is influencer Ashley St. Clair, who gave birth to one of his sons in 2024.
St. Clair says in the doc that the two connected after Musk began following her on social media and would message her saying she should have more children. St. Clair says in the doc that once their relationship went south and after giving birth to Musk’s child, she was offered $15 million up front and $100,000 per month over 21 years if she signed an NDA. She refused.
St. Clair also recalled that one night she was with Musk in bed and he was listening to a podcast about Kublai Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan who had at least 47 children.
She also said that Musk once texted her that he needed a “legion of children before the civil war.”
St. Clair claims she wasn’t the only one Musk reached out to on social media in hopes of procreating.
It’s a “Gatling gun of sperm on his DMs,” she told Gibney.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment on the documentary. But on Tuesday, when Katie Miller, the onetime communications director for DOGE, called the doc “fictional” and “a hit job by a self-obsessed Hollywood director,” Musk replied with one word: “Exactly.”
“Musk” opens in theaters October 16.
