Elon Musk’s MAGA Shift, Self-Driving Cars, Myths About Mars and More Get Examined in New Documentary: 5 Biggest Revelations

“Musk,” an incisive four-hour documentary probing the world’s richest man, was embraced at Venice Film Festival with a four-minute standing ovation.

Despite the lengthy runtime, audiences inside Lido’s famed Palazza del Cinema seemed enraptured in the film, directed by Oscar-winner Alex Gibney, with one person in the crowd shouting “Thank you!” after the applause died down. (The claps and cheers might have lasted longer, but attendeeds were desperate to stretch their legs and get some fresh air after one of the longer movies at the festival.) Gibney was joined at the premiere by two interview subjects in the documentary, Ashley St. Clair, an influencer who was in a relationship with Musk and gave birth last year to his 13th child, and tech journalist Zoë Schiffer. 

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Gibney, who has investigated corrupt corporations (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”), sexual abuse coverups in the Catholic Church (“Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God”), Scientology (“Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Disbelief”) and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election (“Agents of Chaos”), started working on his Musk documentary — which his subject has called “a hit piece” sight unseen — in 2023.

“‘Musk’ reframes the story of the tech titan as the 21st century reincarnation of the confidence man,” Gibney said in his director’s statement for thorough documentary. Although Musk didn’t sit for the film, the documentary includes interviews with his first wife, Justine Musk; St. Clair, his father, Errol Musk; Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather of AI”; Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard; LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and more.

St. Clair was present at the doc’s Venice press conference earlier on Tuesday, telling journalists that because she refused to sign a $40 million NDA after giving birth to Musk’s 13th child last year, she was able to be interviewed for the film. “I hope the risk that I’m taking now in speaking out and trying to fight back at least helps a little bit,” St. Clair said.

“Musk” is scheduled for a theatrical release in the U.S. on Oct. 16 via indie distributor Bleeker Street followed by a streaming launch on HBO Max. “It’s the most epic film Gibney has made to date,” Bleecker Street’s CEO Kent Sanderson told Variety ahead of its Venice bow. “It is explosive in the way it was constructed, and we look forward to the conversations it elicits after the world premiere.”

Below are five of the biggest takeaways from “Musk.”

Inventor or Investor?

Musk’s greatest talent is not as an inventor, but as an investor — and his genius is stock pumping, the documentary alleges. Musk’s public profile and statements have driven major valuation boosts in companies like Tesla and SpaceX, but Gibney argues his claims are often out of sync with facts or evidence. A prime example of this is his involvement in Telsa, for which he is the largest investor and shareholder — but not the founder. Tesla’s real co-founder, Martin Eberhard, sits for an interview in the film and laments that most people seem to think Musk created the company. “He has an ego problem,” Eberhard says in the doc, adding that if he could go back in time, he wouldn’t have ceded so much power to him.

Myths About Cars and Mars

The doc also dives deep into Tesla’s AutoPilot feature, which it says has sparked over 60 deaths and subsequent lawsuits. Gibney argues that because Musk touted the cars as “self-driving” on social media and in public appearances, many took that as the truth, when in reality they were meant to be driven with some assistance. Actual footage from an accident that resulted in a fatality is shown in the doc, including the 911 call and video from the police and the car’s own cameras. This is just one example of Musk “telling people the future has arrived when it hasn’t,” as the doc puts it, and the dangerous impact that can have.

Musk’s “Occupy Mars” initiative isn’t too different. The doc debunks his claim that people will be able to live on the red planet in a self-sustaining city in 20 years. In fact, as the film points out, Mars would be incredibly difficult for humans to survive on due to its lack of oxygen and high radiation — and these are not problems likely to be solved soon. As the doc asserts, Musk is selling sci-fi dreams, teasing possibilities without knowing the real answers.

Baby Mama Drama

The doc features interviews with Justine Musk, Elon’s first wife and mother to five of his children, as well as St. Clair. In an emotional interview, Justine recalls the death of their first child, Nevada, from sudden infant death syndrome 10 days after he was born. She tears up as she remembers an X post in which Musk claimed he was holding Nevada when the child died, and says that she was actually the one holding him. “I learned the term gaslighting through my relationship with Elon,” she says, revealing that during the first dance at their wedding he told her that he was the “alpha in this relationship.” Musk’s trans daughter Vivian was also highlighted in the film. Elon has repeatedly said that he lost her to the “woke mind virus,” and Justine confirms that he “never tried to repair things” after those public comments about his child. Though Elon told Justine to tell Vivian that “I’ll always love her,” his ex-wife claims he then took his daughter off of his health insurance the next day.

A similar pattern continued in his following relationships, including with musician Grimes — with whom Musk has three children — and St. Clair. In her interview, St. Clair says that she and Musk started talking after he told her she should have more children and then picked her up in his private jet. That night, while they were falling asleep, he was listening to a podcast about Kublai Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan who had at least 47 children. She claims that he once messaged her to say they should have a “legion of children before the civil war.” As their relationship fizzled out, she alleges she was offered a NDA totaling $40 million — a lump sum of $15 million and then payments of $100,000 a month for 21 years — not to speak about him. She refused. Though Musk has 14 known children, the doc suggests he has an obsession with procreation, and he could have more. “The breeders are interchangeable,” Justine says.

The Father

In perhaps one of the most surprising interviews, Gibney was able to sit down with Elon’s father, a businessman and politician. His interview provides interesting insight into Elon’s childhood, which was quite unstable and violent. (In 2025, Errol was accused of sexual abuse by five of his children and stepchildren. Errol denies those accusations and disputes that characterization in the doc, saying he “never hit” his kids.) Elon was often bullied at school, Errol describes, and once his son was beaten so badly his face was unrecognizable. He later learned that it was because Elon had told a boy whose father had committed suicide that the decision was “stupid.” As a kid, Elon was obsessed with comic books, and Errol said that once his friend “dropped dead” in front of them and Elon just continued reading his book. However, Errol’s interview ends with a warning of sorts: “Do not bet against Elon. You’re going to lose.”

Right-Wing Shift

Gibney also examines Musk’s political shift toward the right and his relationship with President Donald Trump. The COVID-19 pandemic flipped a switch in Musk’s brain, people close to the tech oligarch claim, because Musk was annoyed that Tesla factories had to pause production. His MAGA tilt increased once he was able to buy X under the guise of free speech. The doc makes the case that Musk backing Trump in the 2024 presidential election was driven by his companies’ reliance on federal government contracts and partly by the regulatory and legal scrutiny they faced, with several investigations underway including a criminal case involving AutoPilot that could have landed him in prison. There was also a sense that Musk thought Trump was an “easier candidate to buy,” according to interview subjects in the doc.

The doc also delves into Musk’s potential techno-surveillance capabilities. In her interview, St. Clair alleges Musk had a “degree of certainty” about the results of the 2024 presidential election before they were officially tallied that “I had never seen before.” When Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — established by Trump in January 2025 to allegedly cut government spending and reduce the federal workforce — he gained potential access to techno-surveilling data to which federal agencies had access. In an interview, the “Godfather of AI” Hinton explains how this data could allegedly be leveraged into an unfair campaign advantage.

“It’s fairly clear to me that Trump is hell-bent on corrupting the midterm elections,” Hinton says in the film. “If you wanted to corrupt those midterm elections and you wanted to use AI, all you needed to do was get detailed information on U.S. citizens. And what DOGE did looked like just what you would do.”