Elon Musk attacks Alex Gibney for daring to make a critical documentary about him
The filmmaker has said he thinks the billionaire is “extremely dangerous.”
Elon Musk and Alex Gibney. By Shutterstock / Cybernews.
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- Alex Gibney’s 225-minute documentary “Musk” premiered at the Venice Film Festival after nearly three years of work.
- Elon Musk attacked Gibney on X, calling him dishonest and suggesting the film is politically motivated.
- Musk declined an interview, so Gibney used public statements, archival material, and AI voice syncing.
- The film follows Musk from early startups to Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, X, and his alliance with Donald Trump.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk is using his social media platform X to attack acclaimed filmmaker Alex Gibney. His crime? A new in-depth documentary about Musk’s life and influence.
Almost 3 years ago, when Gibney confirmed he was making a documentary about the world’s richest individual, Musk called him a douche. On X, Gibney replied with a single word: “Douche.”
Fast forward to September 2026, and the new film “Musk” – 225 minutes of it – is finally out, premiering at the Venice Film Festival. Not much else has changed – Musk is still railing against Gibney online.
While most reviews of “Musk” are very positive, the billionaire, who never sat down to chat with Gibney and state his case for the film, is clearly furious. On X, a platform Musk bought in 2022 for $44 billion, he went on an angry tirade, calling the director a “bitter old man” who has “zero integrity.”
“Gibney just assembled a hit list of people who either have an axe to grind or don’t even know me (but still have an axe to grind). He has ZERO integrity. Horrible human,” Musk said in another X post, also calling the film “boring af.”
The billionaire seems to be pushing a theory that the documentary is a conspiracy by the Democrats. Musk reposted an image depicting the Democratic Party as a puppet controlling another puppet, “Team Soros,” which in turn controls a puppet labeled “Alex Gibney.”
For good measure, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro sent Jigsaw Productions, a film company led by Gibney, a legal notice that zeroes in on the film’s suggestion that Musk used Starlink to influence the 2024 US presidential election, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Gibney – whose previous works include award-winning documentaries about Scientology and the Russian billionaire exile Mikhail Khodorkovsky – has said that Musk’s ascent was “the story of the confidence man” whose empire was built on the ability to sell inflated visions and hyped-up promises.
Now, the documentarian claims, “extremely dangerous” Musk is “pursuing a global right-wing agenda, both for ideological and for very practical and monetary reasons.”
I would say he has a very difficult time with empathy,Alex Gibney
The film traces Musk’s rise from Zip2 and PayPal through Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, and X, and into his alliance with US President Donald Trump and his run as head of DOGE.
Gibney interviews Musk’s father, Errol, his first wife Justine, Ashley St. Clair, the influencer who had a son with the billionaire in 2024, and multiple personalities from the tech industry.
But he never spoke with Musk himself since the billionaire wouldn’t do an interview. Instead, Gibney’s team compiled an archive of everything Musk has ever said publicly and built a CGI version of him to deliver those words on camera with AI voice syncing.
