Musk (2026) film
Recently I sat down to watch the new Musk documentary, which is streaming on Amazon Video. It's a bummer this didn't come out on digital platforms until after the midterm elections, because it paints a better, more realistic picture of Elon Musk.
Here's the trailer:
Four hours?!
The first surprise was learning after I started watching it that it was about 4 hours long. I told myself I would duck out when I got tired of it so I could watch the rest the next day, but I sat through all four hours of it in one sitting, which is a great sign the film kept my attention completely the whole time.
I never turned it off because I always wanted to see what they'd show next.
Stuff I knew
I knew about 90% of the stories covered in the film, but even hearing about stuff I was familiar with, when put into this context, was really illuminating about just how awful Elon Musk is and always has been.
Stuff I didn't know
I'd never seen Elon's dad before (he seemed like a real looney), I hadn't seen the actual dash cam video of the Tesla crash that killed someone at a T-intersection, and I hadn't seen any of the mothers of his babies on screen before.
The biggest surprise to me was hearing how Elon fleeced the California Air Resources Board with that "swappable battery packs" bullshit. I knew Elon exploited every clean air credit he could for the past 20 years but for some reason I hadn't heard of that particular story before and it was wild to see it in the parking lot of one of my favorite central CA pitstops: Harris Ranch.
Stuff the film missed
I really wish they spent a big chunk explaining the Boring Company, how it is another one of his stupid stunts to divert attention and investment from good public rail projects towards his joke of his make believe tunnels for moving people around cities (inefficiently).
The distance between Elon's promises and what The Boring Company actually delivered in Las Vegas is such a great encapsulation of how Musk over-promises and under-delivers, while always enriching himself in the process. The Tesla tunnel below the Vegas strip is such an absolute joke when compared to what a real light rail system could do, and a perfect example of how he manipulates policy and markets while delivering an inferior product.
Honestly, the whole documentary could have stretched to 8 hours, as a multipart mini-series, as I would have loved to hear more about his stupid obsession with living on Mars and more about his South African upbringing.
The bottom line
Musk overall was a good, thorough unvarnished look at the life and work of Elon Musk. It lays out quite clearly how he's been a huckster since he started in the tech world, how Tesla's stock is artificially high and how Musk gooses it whenever he needs capital, and why Musk should be stopped from gaining any more fortune or influence.
If you've followed tech news for years, a lot of the subject matter will sound familiar to you, but it's still a compelling, deep, look at an awful person. I came away from watching this feeling deeply frustrated with how much Musk has sunk his ugly tendrils into the stock market, tech world, and politics.
For anyone outside of the tech world who wants to know the real story of Musk, this is a fantastic takedown that paints the full picture of Elon and something nerds should show to their family so they know more about how Elon is more of a marketer than anything else, how his USAID cuts killed hundreds of thousands, and how his Tesla empire is built on a foundation of bullshit.
