Alex Gibney's Documentary “Musk” Portrays Elon Musk as a Modern Confidence Man
Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney has made “Musk,” a four-hour documentary about tech billionaire Elon Musk. It challenges his image as a visionary, and it drew the subject's anger before its release.
Alex Gibney, a US director who has won an Oscar for documentary filmmaking, has made a biographical documentary titled “Musk” about entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has had a major influence on the technology sector over the past 20 years. The film runs about four hours. A review in Ars Technica, a technology and culture outlet, published in October 2026, suggests it feels like two different films.
Gibney presents Musk not as a tech visionary but as a Gilded Age-style confidence man updated for the 21st century. In the film's telling, Musk is an investor posing as an inventor, whose real talent lies in pumping up stock prices and dazzling investors and the public with visions of a high-tech utopian future.
Disputes before release
Before the film came out, it drew Musk's ire, along with threats of a defamation lawsuit. There were also rumors that Universal Pictures might back away from a theatrical release in international markets, but these have so far proved unfounded.
What the film covers
The documentary goes over the best-known parts of Musk's life: Tesla and the fatalities linked to its driver-assistance systems, SpaceX, Starlink, the purchase of Twitter, his shift from warning about AI risks to fully embracing it through Grok, his embrace of Donald Trump, the creation of DOGE, his alleged drug use, and his 14 (possibly more) children.
Interviewees include his ex-wife Justine Musk, journalist Kara Swisher, Martin Eberhard, Geoffrey Hinton, former MAGA influencer Ashley St. Clair, who had a child with Musk, as well as Cory Doctorow, Adam Becker and Sam Harris. David Byrne co-wrote and performed an original song for the soundtrack, “Let Me Sell You a Dream,” which incorporates more of Musk's own words.
The director's earlier work
Gibney has made documentaries since the 1980s, with subjects including Jimi Hendrix, Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo journalism, WikiLeaks, Scientology, Steve Jobs, Boris Becker, the opioid epidemic and cyclist Lance Armstrong. He received his first Oscar nomination for 2005's “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” and won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature two years later for “Taxi to the Dark Side.”
