The nearly four-hour documentary Musk opens in New York and Los Angeles on October 9 — and its most explosive scene is about the 2024 election.
In the film, Ashley St. Clair — Musk's former partner — says Musk texted her on October 6, 2024, that he was feeling more optimistic about Trump because "tomorrow we unleash the anomaly in the matrix." When she asked what he meant, he wrote that he was talking about "lasers" from space and that he has over 10,000 lasers in space. Director Alex Gibney asks if she thought that meant Starlink. She says she does not know where else he has space lasers.
The sequence leaves the impression that Musk used Starlink satellites to tilt the election for Trump. Musk's lawyer says that impression is false.
On September 3, Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro sent a letter to Gibney's company, Jigsaw Productions, putting the filmmaker on formal legal notice — and the scope of the warning is the story. It doesn't stop with Gibney. The letter warns that a defamation suit could follow against the producers and the distributors: HBO, Bleecker Street, and Universal. That's the full chain — the people who made it and the companies that would put it in theaters and on screens. Naming the distributors is the pressure point: it tells every company touching this film that releasing it could mean getting sued.
The letter says the film is a hit piece that started with a conclusion, and that the filmmakers refused to screen it or fact-check it with Musk's team. Musk has not sued. Not yet. But the notice is designed to make everyone involved think twice before October 9.
Spiro zeroed in on the election scene. His letter says Starlink was not connected to vote tabulation, and that election officials, cybersecurity researchers, and fact-checkers publicly rejected the Starlink vote-rigging claim back in November 2024. He wrote that the filmmakers were on notice the insinuation is false, the material refuting it is public — and they chose not to be told the rest.
The film itself is the work of Oscar-winner Gibney. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Musk did not participate; the film uses his public statements and interviews with people around him, including St. Clair.
Musk has called the film boring and a hit piece. He denied St. Clair's claim that she was offered about $40 million to sign an NDA, saying she was never offered that and has a history of making false claims.
Gibney isn't backing down. In a clip with Chuck Todd, he says the threat has already been made — and if Musk sues, he would welcome discovery. That's the gamble on both sides: a lawsuit would force everyone to open their files under oath — Musk's texts and records, but also the filmmakers' emails and editorial decisions. Discovery cuts both ways, and both men know it.
He also says anyone who understands Musk's power would be foolish not to be a little scared, but that won't stop him from saying what he thinks needs to be said.
So the lines are drawn. Musk's camp has put the entire chain — filmmaker, producers, distributors — on notice over an insinuation officials already debunked. Gibney's camp says bring it on. The documentary opens October 9. The lawsuit, if it comes, comes after.