In new Elon Musk documentary, his lieutenants are the most damning voices
NBC News · LC · trust 53/100
ANALYSIS Elon Musk Elon Musk In new Elon Musk documentary, his lieutenants are the most damning voices “Musk,” the new film from Alex Gibney, features interviews with more than the usual critics of the Tesla and SpaceX CEO. Listen to this article with a free profile 00:00 00:00 SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in Washington on Sept. 29. Kent Nishimura / AFP via Getty Share Add NBC News to Google Oct. 9, 2026, 5:00 AM EDT By David Ingram SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — It’s easy to find people with bad things to say about tech magnate Elon Musk, and plenty of those people show up in “Musk,” a new documentary about his rise to political and corporate power. What’s more surprising in the film are the unflattering statements by some of his own employees, including ones who still work for him.
Some of the harshest scenes in the film, which opens Friday in Los Angeles and New York, are ones in which Musk’s lieutenants were recorded on video or in audio as they wielded power on his behalf or discussed what they had already done for him.
Warning: This article includes spoilers for the documentary “Musk.”
There are clips of Ashok Elluswamy, a high-ranking Tesla engineer, acknowledging in a videotaped deposition that an infamous hype video he helped put together in 2016 about the company’s self-driving capabilities was not an accurate representation of Tesla’s technology at the time.
There are also audio snippets from Jared Birchall, who handles Musk’s personal matters. He is heard on a recording of a phone call with online influencer Ashley St. Clair, shortly after she had given birth to a child she and Musk conceived, in which he plays hardball on child support arrangements.
Both incidents were documented in the media: Reuters reported in 2023 on the transcript of Elluswamy’s deposition , and The Wall Street Journal reported last year on Birchall’s phone call with St. Clair.
But the video and the audio appear to be newly public, giving the documentary a mix of voices beyond the usual critics and creating moments of surprise even for a viewer who is familiar with the ins and outs of Musk’s complicated story.
Filmmaker Alex Gibney says in the documentary that he and his team spent more than three years researching Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, pulling together not only archival interviews and hard-to-find footage but also a database of quotes from Musk that are peppered throughout the film.
Musk, 55, did not participate in the documentary, and he has panned it, saying on X that it is a “ hit piece ” and that Gibney has “ zero integrity .” Musk, Tesla, SpaceX, Elluswamy and Birchall did not respond to requests for comment.
The nearly four-hour film is a comprehensive tour through Musk’s life story, with deep dives into the growth of SpaceX and Tesla, his fathering of 14 known children and his on-again, off-again alliance with President Donald Trump, including his becoming the biggest donor to Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The film is a reminder of how often Musk has put himself at the center of public discourse and pop culture, and it moves swiftly through the highlights and lowlights: from his 2021 hosting gig on “Saturday Night Live” and his chaotic purchase of Twitter the next year to his Grok chatbot’s embracing the identity “ MechaHitler ” and his wielding of a chain saw early in Trump’s second term.
“I like to call it a ‘svelte’ four-hour film,” producer Jessie Deeter said at a screening Wednesday at the Mill Valley Film Festival in Marin County, California. (The film has a 10-minute intermission, but it is still roughly the length of the 1962 epic “Lawrence of Arabia.”)
At the screening, which was about 90% full, the biggest applause came during a moment of anti-Musk defiance, as a former career federal employee explained why they quit the Trump administration last year rather than cooperate with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
FOR SUBSCRIBERS After surviving a botched lethal injection, Christa Pike faces unprecedented legal battle FOR SUBSCRIBERS Hunger in a land of plenty: Major food banks face ‘heartbreaking’ need, NBC News survey finds FOR SUBSCRIBERS Inflation and tariffs push U.S. holiday spending projections to a record $1.7 trillion FOR SUBSCRIBERS What happened inside the room where officials tried to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection FOR SUBSCRIBERS How we reported the saga of the CIA officer and his gold-bar stash FOR SUBSCRIBERS ‘We’re going to beat you to death with audits’: Brad Raffensperger gears up to oversee his final election in Georgia FOR SUBSCRIBERS Diddy is punished following NBC News report on his VIP life in prison and contraband cellphone use FOR SUBSCRIBERS ‘Too young to vote, old enough to be tear gassed’: French protesters’ anger swells FOR SUBSCRIBERS DOJ gets aggressive in suing states that challenge Trump’s immigration policies FOR SUBSCRIBERS Justice Department seeks criminal charge for former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson FOR SUBSCRIBERS ‘I just want to hold him’: USS Lincoln sailor to meet his 10-month-old son as ship docks FOR SUBSCRIBERS Senate candidates run on raising Social Security taxes for higher incomes to prevent benefit cuts FOR SUBSCRIBERS Russian operation that used ChatGPT tricked schools, a politician and media, OpenAI says FOR SUBSCRIBERS Trump administration’s deal with Nevada fuels data center fight in governor’s race FOR SUBSCRIBERS Latino voters reject Trump’s immigration policies — and detail the personal impact Slide 1 of 1 The film lands at another potentially pivotal moment for Musk, amid speculation that Democrats may investigate him if they take control of Congress after the midterm elections. Polling shows that Musk remains deeply divisive, with a majority of Americans holding unfavorable views of him even as Trump honored him at the White House on Thursday.
FOR SUBSCRIBERS After surviving a botched lethal injection, Christa Pike faces unprecedented legal battle FOR SUBSCRIBERS Hunger in a land of plenty: Major food banks…
Read the original at NBC News →
Open in TruthVane →