The first full trailer for the new documentary about billionaire Elon Musk is here. And it’s clearly going to be quite a doozy.
The film, simply titled Musk, is directed by Alex Gibney, who’s known as one of the best documentary filmmakers working today. Gibney directed Taxi to the Dark Side (2007), Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015), and The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019), among others.
A very short teaser trailer was released earlier this month, but it didn’t really tell us too much about what to expect. The new trailer opens with tweets of Musk calling Gibney a “douche” and features clips from interviews with people like Tesla’s real founders, tech critic Corey Doctorow, and Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s many children.
Musk’s first wife, Justine Musk, is also seen in the trailer, saying “somebody on Elon’s side referred to us as the breeders.” Musk has 14 children that are publicly known, but it’s believed he has many more secret kids.
The movie was originally slated to be released in theaters later in October, but the release date was bumped up to October 9 due to “intense public interest,” according to Deadline. The October 9 release date only covers New York and Los Angeles, with a full rollout nationwide the following weekend.
Musk has criticized both Gibney and the movie, though it’s unclear whether he’s seen it yet. Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro has reportedly threatened legal action against Gibney, though it doesn’t look like any lawsuit has actually been filed. Musk appears to take issue with St. Clair’s claim that Musk rigged the 2024 election in favor of President Trump in some way.
Gibney told Deadline that he’s taking the threat of legal action seriously, since he’s “well-funded.” Musk is known to file lawsuits against perceived enemies. As the wealthiest person in the world, Musk can file plenty of lawsuits with his unlimited war chest, even if they don’t have merit, something Gibney is well aware of. Musk is currently worth $929 billion, according to Forbes.
“Let’s just be honest for a moment and say that with our legal system, money talks in court in a way that it shouldn’t,” Gibney told Deadline. “It’s not like everyone is equal under the law. He’s got a bucket load of money, more money on paper than anybody on the planet. And so, is it a concern when braggadocious Alex Spiro fires a broadside and threatens to sue? Yeah, it’s always a concern. But what they threatened to sue about was patently ridiculous. They hadn’t even seen the film.”
The new film is 3 hours and 45 minutes long. Production began in 2023, and the film was supposed to wrap a couple of years ago, but after Musk helped Trump win the election and took a chainsaw to the federal government, Gibney kept working, extending the movie’s runtime. Thankfully, theaters are reportedly going to provide an intermission.
