Alex Gibney’s New Elon Musk Documentary Gets a Teaser

Yesterday Bleecker Street put out a short teaser for Alex Gibney’s long‑awaited documentary, simply titled Musk. In under two minutes the trailer slams together awe‑inspiring footage of rockets blasting off, then spectacularly failing, while a chorus of voices describe the tech mogul in almost exclusively bleak terms.

“He’s chaotic, random, capricious,” one narrator intones. “He is manifestly cruel and selfish,” adds another. A third voice warns, “In a science‑fiction novel, he would not be a hero.” The final clip? “A man who has lost his mind.”

According to the official synopsis, the film runs roughly four hours and promises “an incisive look behind the legend of Elon Musk, the wealthiest, and most unchecked, man on the planet.”

Gibney, the Oscar‑winning documentarian behind Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Going Clear, has been tracking Musk for several years. In a 2024 interview with Deadline he said the billionaire’s larger‑than‑life persona made him a natural subject. “People have their opinions about him, but the challenge is to find something that people don’t expect, something hiding in plain sight,” he explained. “It’s not just thumbs up or thumbs down. It’s about how he actually operates.”

Speaking with the Associated Press earlier this week, Gibney noted that the scope of Musk’s power dwarfs anything he’s covered before. “It’s not new wine in a new bottle,” he said. “Musk suffers from what some call ‘noble‑cause corruption.’ He believes in making us multiplanetary and saving the planet, and that belief lets him rationalize almost anything.” He went on to compare Musk to the infamous leaders of Enron and Elizabeth Holmes, pointing out how the billionaire “bends the truth to serve his impulses.”

The documentary will debut at the Venice Film Festival, where it opened to a hushed audience on Friday. Bleecker Street plans a wide theatrical release on October 16, followed by a streaming run on HBO later in the year.

Fans and critics alike will be watching closely. After all, few modern stories blend space ambition, electric cars, social‑media fireworks, and personal controversy the way Musk does. Whether the film confirms the prevailing narrative or uncovers a new layer, it’s clear that Gibney aims to make us think harder about the man who seems to have a hand in everything.