Elon Musk has called the documentarian Alex Gibney many names on X in the last few months: “crackpot,” “douchebag to his core,” “an idiot,” and someone for whom “dogsh*t is worth more respect.” That’s because Gibney made a four-hour documentary about him, “Musk,” which arrives in U.S. theaters October 9. Gibney has chronicled tech leaders including Elizabeth Holmes and Steve Jobs. But this film has generated perhaps more news and controversy ahead of its release than any of his previous documentaries, in large part because of how strongly Musk and other tech companies have reacted to it.
Musk is waging a war of words over the documentary online, and his lawyer threatened Gibney with a defamation lawsuit. In late September, the Hollywood Reporter wrote that YouTube, Meta, TikTok, and X all declined to run the movie’s trailer on their platforms due to its “political content.” Universal Pictures, which controls the movie’s worldwide distribution rights, also delayed its rollout over political sensitivities before saying that it stood by the film. (A representative for Gibney wrote to TIME on Oct. 5 that worldwide distribution had been "worked out" following an Oct. 2 call with Universal, but did not elaborate further.) On Sept. 30, Gibney sat down with TIME in Washington, D.C. to discuss why the movie is so critical of Musk, and Gibney’s ongoing fight to distribute it widely. Here are excerpts from the conversation, which has been condensed for clarity.
TIME: Is this movie a hit piece, as Elon Musk says? Gibney: It's certainly critical, but I think the criticism is earned. This is a rigorous and meticulous investigation of somebody, and it ends up being critical.
I saw the film yesterday and found it incredibly dread-inducing. It literally ends with the destruction of the planet into a fireball. Look at all of these tech leaders in Washington, talking about the future of AI.
The takeaway seems to be, “We'll just take care of it.” Having been on that ride with Elon Musk, I don't want him to take care of it. He seems so comfortable with risk that he'd just as soon leave the planet. I posit at the end of the film, it's as if he's betting on whether or not AI will lead us to a moment of extraordinary abundance or basically the end of life on Earth.
Who makes that kind of a bet? Musk just landed a new gig: co-leading Project Meridian, a new Pentagon initiative aimed at shaping the future of warfare. That's like putting the Joker in charge of the Manhattan Project.
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