Alex Gibney's documentary Musk opens in theaters Friday, with an HBO streaming release due in a few months, NPR reported. The release comes with a threat attached: Elon Musk has warned of a defamation lawsuit over the film, according to NPR, after calling the director several insults, "an idiot" among the milder ones.
Gibney spent four years researching the project. He told NPR's Morning Edition that he began as someone interested in Musk's work, if not quite an admirer, and that he owned Tesla solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall at home. That changed as the work went on. He said he grew resentful and angry, and he described Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's comments about integrating xAI into the Department of War as an out-of-body moment.
The dispute over the St. Clair texts
According to NPR, a letter from Musk attorney Alex Spiro to Gibney's company, Jigsaw Productions, surfaced in September. It centers on an exchange in the film with Ashley St. Clair, a former MAGA influencer who had a child with Musk. She describes texts he sent before the November 2024 presidential election, including a line about "lasers" in space. NPR said it obtained and authenticated the messages, dated Oct. 6, 2024.
Spiro's letter, which NPR reviewed, calls false an insinuation that Starlink satellites uploaded votes for Donald Trump in swing states. NPR described that idea as a debunked conspiracy theory. Gibney rejects the characterization. "We don't claim that he changed votes in the 2024 election," he told NPR, saying instead that the film shows Musk bragging to St. Clair about special insight into the outcome. Whether Musk was lying, bragging or revealing something, Gibney said, is for viewers to decide.
He told NPR he expected a legal challenge, had lawyers review the film and hired an independent fact checker to check his in-house ones. He also noted that a lawsuit would open discovery, which could let him subpoena Musk's internal documents. NPR said it asked Spiro about the film's specific claims and had not heard back.
What the film argues
Gibney told NPR that SpaceX and Tesla achieved real technological things but carried stock prices far out of proportion to their economic value, which he attributes to Musk overselling. The film, per NPR, credits SpaceX with ferrying equipment to space and developing cheaply reusable rockets, but says Musk pitched it as a company forever about to colonize Mars. It says Tesla made popular electric cars but oversold them as self-driving, without enough sensors, which it links to crashes. Gibney called that overpromising that edges into fraud.
Vulture's review, first published out of the Venice International Film Festival and recirculated for the theatrical release, calls the film absorbing and often infuriating. It describes a digital avatar of Musk, built from his past remarks, standing in for an interview he declined to give. The review also notes interviews with people who worked with Musk and with family, including his father, Errol, and his first wife, Justine Musk. It asks who the audience will be and whether the film can persuade anyone beyond viewers who already agree with it.
Why it matters
The film's central dispute is narrow and checkable: what the St. Clair texts show, and what the film implies about them. With a lawsuit threatened and no response yet from Musk's attorney on the film's claims, that question may get tested beyond the screen.
Reporting sources: NPR Topics: Culture, “How 'Musk' director Alex Gibney became a critic” · Vulture, “Musk Is Terrifying”.
