Elon Musk’s “shocking” conflicts of interest take centre stage in the new trailer for Musk, Alex Gibney’s sprawling documentary about the tech mogul and his growing influence.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bleecker Street has released the trailer ahead of the film’s 9 October US theatrical release. The nearly four-hour documentary premiered at the Venice International Film Festival before screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“What are the odds that we’re in base reality?” Musk asks in the trailer. “Like, we are in a simulation.” Gibney responds to the idea by turning his unwilling subject into a digital avatar and making it mouth words Musk has said publicly.
The avatar does not appear in the trailer. But the preview offers plenty of other material. It shows Musk promoting visions of Mars, allegations surrounding a Tesla vehicle and the death of an innocent person, women Musk recruited to help populate the planet through his children, and a whistleblower revealing a potentially damaging text Musk allegedly sent on election night in 2024.
The two-and-a-half-minute trailer plays over David Byrne’s original song “Let Me Sell You a Dream”. It condenses material from nearly four hours of film.
The documentary’s central section follows Musk’s arrival in Washington DC and his chaotic four-month stint leading DOGE. The film alleges that the cuts to USAID and other programmes resulted in tens of thousands of lost jobs and lives. It also examines allegations that Musk and his team pocketed large amounts of data during the process.
The film explores the overlap between Musk’s business interests and government oversight during that period. “The conflicts of interest are shocking,” Wired leader Katie Drummond says in the trailer.
Reviews featured in the trailer, following screenings in Venice and Toronto, praise the documentary’s ambition and impact. The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney also praised Gibney’s work, saying the film has “a clarity that makes his conclusions hard to refute.”
Gibney, known for Taxi to the Dark Side and Going Clear, spent two years making an initial two-hour film about Musk before the billionaire entered Washington. After Musk joined the Trump administration, Gibney spent another year making what became another two-hour film focused on events inside the Beltway.
HBO, which owns the television and streaming rights in North America, called Gibney in 2024 and asked for more material. The network also agreed to fund the additional work.
Bleecker Street will release Musk in New York and Los Angeles on 9 October, followed by a nationwide rollout the following week.
The film’s release will test the viability of documentaries, public interest in Musk and the willingness of audiences to engage with, and even protest, what the film describes as an oligarchal takeover of American life.
Musk previously attacked the documentary and had his lawyer put the filmmaking team “on notice”. He has remained largely silent about the film lately. Any further comments before its release could prove almost as valuable to its marketing as the trailer itself.
