Musk" Trailer (2026)

"What are the odds that we live in base reality? That we're in a simulation?" With that question, posed by Elon Musk himself, the trailer for 'Musk' — the new documentary from director Alex Gibney — begins. The question is far from innocent: the trailer uses it as a starting point to cast doubt on the image that the world's richest man has spent decades constructing of himself.

Gibney, known for documentaries such as 'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room', 'Taxi to the Dark Side', and 'Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief', directs here a portrait made without the cooperation of its subject. The trailer makes this clear from the outset: "Elon wouldn't participate." From that absence, the film builds a narrative constructed from the testimonies of people close to Musk. Among the voices featured in the trailer are those of Justine Musk, the businessman's first wife, and Ashley St. Clair, who claims that Musk confided in her: "I can't be president, but I can help Trump beat Biden." The documentary spans from the origins of Tesla and the dispute over who can call themselves a founder of the company, to accidents linked to the autonomous driving system, through to the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and conflicts of interest with regulatory agencies such as the SEC, the FAA, and USAID.

The tone of the trailer alternates between statements from direct sources and questions that the film itself poses without immediate answers: "What are his true motivations? Do we really know this man?" The documentary runs to nearly four hours, a length that underscores the ambition of the project.

'Musk' had its world premiere out of competition at the 83rd Venice Film Festival on 8 September 2026, and was subsequently presented at the Toronto International Film Festival. North American distribution is handled by Bleecker Street, which brought the release date forward to 9 October 2026 in response to the interest generated by the film. For international markets, Universal Pictures has taken on distribution, though as of the publication of this trailer, no specific release date had been announced for the United Kingdom.