Alex Gibney’s documentary “Musk” shows a man who has delivered important innovations for the public good, and who now holds a dangerous concentration of power over our data, our democracy and our idea of what it means to be human.
By Rev. Michael J. Christensen
My tech friend Michael Dotson and I watched Alex Gibney’s new documentary “Musk” at Fashion Valley last weekend, so you won’t have to. It runs nearly four hours. It is meticulously researched and theologically provocative. Musk did not cooperate, though his father and other family members did, so Gibney uses an AI-generated avatar to speak Musk’s own recorded words. The effect is eerie, dare I say, demonic, and fitting for a film about a man who wants to remake humanity through technology.
The film credits what Musk has built, with help from administrations of both parties. SpaceX’s reusable rockets slashed the cost of reaching orbit and now carry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. Tesla pushed the auto industry toward electric vehicles. Starlink connects rural communities and disaster zones, and it has been a lifeline for Ukraine since 2022.
But the film also catalogs promises that never arrived: a crewed Mars mission by 2024, a million robotaxis by 2020, and fully self-driving cars that are still “next year.” And it shows a growing pattern of social and political control. The satellite network Ukraine relies on answers to one private citizen, who by his own account declined in 2022 to extend coverage for a Ukrainian strike on Russia’s fleet in Crimea. This month, Ukraine reported that its Starlink and Starshield satellite service was restricted for a day, hampering its defense against Russian drones. Musk pointed to the White House; President Trump denied it. Either way, a nation at war depends on decisions made by one company and by one man.
I am neither a technologist nor a political commentator, but a local minister and public theologian who has spent much of my scholarly life studying Christian history and apocalyptic eschatology. In 1932, Aldous Huxley imagined in “Brave New World” a society engineered into contented submission. In 1943, during World War II, C.S. Lewis warned in “The Abolition of Man” that what we call “Man’s power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.” Watching “Musk,” I kept thinking that Huxley and Lewis (who both died on Nov. 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated) saw this coming. The film sharpened my sense of four existential threats in the current moment.
Privacy. Under Musk’s leadership, the Department of Government Efficiency gained access to sensitive federal databases. Last year the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that DOGE copied records on more than 300 million Americans to a server without independent oversight. The agency says the data is secure. But dossiers, once assembled, do not simply disappear. Who holds them now? Could they be sold, mined or used against the people they describe — and is that data being used now to influence our elections? The film raises those questions without answering them, and that is chilling.
Democracy. Since the pandemic, Musk has moved sharply right, donning a black cap and declaring himself “Dark MAGA” at a 2024 rally. This cycle, according to Reuters and The New York Times, he has spent roughly $366 million to help Republicans keep control of Congress. Meanwhile, less than three weeks before Election Day, the Justice Department sued California, asking a federal court to block counting of mail ballots from more than 20,000 voters it calls likely noncitizens. On Oct. 19 it charged 28 people from that list with voting and registration crimes, arresting 11; the charges are allegations, not convictions. And days before the suit, a federal judge ruled the department’s screening of state voter rolls through an immigration database unlawful. None of this proves collusion. But consider one man who owns a social media platform and a satellite network, holds billions in federal contracts, has had access to federal data and bankrolls one party’s control of Congress. That concentration of power should alarm Americans of any party.
Care for one another. Government safety nets are being dismantled faster than churches, charities and nonprofits can bridge the gap. God works through human instruments, and congregations are meant to be God’s hands and feet, but they cannot absorb what a government abandons. The Christian Church can be what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the “church for others” only when it puts people ahead of partisan politics. People of faith and goodwill in all the world’s religions can collaborate on compassion in the face of government failures to care for the vulnerable.
Our humanity is at stake. In one revealing scene, Musk recounts how Google co-founder Larry Page called him a “speciesist” for insisting that humanity be protected from advanced AI. Yet Musk’s own answer is a human-techno hybrid: he has said his Neuralink aims at “symbiosis with artificial intelligence.” So, the choice Silicon Valley offers is either to be replaced by machines or to merge with machines, what historian Yuval Noah Harari calls “Homo Deus.” That is not humanity in the image and likeness of our Creator. It is a counterfeit gospel: salvation by upgrade. Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), starts from a different premise. Human dignity is not a feature awaiting an upgrade. We are a living soul; we bear the divine image, an essential human nature that no algorithm can delete or AI agent destroy.
As Archbishop Desmond Tutu liked to say, I remain a prisoner of hope. I cannot help but “lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help” (Psalm 121:1). Billionaires sell dreams; Politicians deceive. God keeps promises; and human beings have a right to survive.
My hope is not passive. I take seriously San Diego’s “No Kings: Vote Early” mobilization, and I support the No Kings protests for biblical reasons. I have completed my mail-in ballot and delivered it to our local library, and I am prepared to stand with other faith leaders if the results of the midterms are not honored. I will work to protect my neighbors’ data and votes, defend due process for immigrants, and help rebuild the institutions that care for the vulnerable.
When I see a film on the big screen, I stay through the credits because directors often punctuate their message with the final song. “Musk” ends with David Byrne’s “Let Me Sell You a Dream,” written explicitly for the film, its lyrics drawn from Musk’s own public statements: Genius Lyrics page for “Let Me Sell You A Dream”
“I’m extremely hardcore / You know my mind is a storm / And I would not even eat / If I could get my work done”
“Let me sell you a dream / Baby, that’s what I do / How the future could be / I can make it come true”
“Now I’m running human / In imitation mode / I’m a chill, normal dude / I just have to keep going”
“You don’t want to be me / You know, the problem / The problem is empathy”
“Do you think I’m insane? / I eat a glass sandwich / Oh, I eat them every day”
“Algorithmic distillation / Multi-planet exploration / I’m a human emulation / I’m a total simulation”
The last frame of the film reads DOUBLE AGENT, the logo of one of the film’s production companies. Accidental or not, the label fits. Musk sells a future for all of us while hedging his bets so that he, and a few peers, stay on top whatever comes.
If you see the film, stay through the credits and enjoy the song. Or wait for it to stream. Either way, keep your eyes on the hills.
The Rev. Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D., is professor of theology and dean of external relations at Northwind Seminary and a clergy member of Peninsula Faith Leaders in Point Loma, San Diego. He is the author of eleven books, including “C.S. Lewis on Scripture,” and has written about Peter Thiel and the rise of the new technocracy, and why people of faith should join “No Kings” protests, for Religion News Service, San Diego Union Tribune, Religion Unplugged. https://religionunplugged.com/news/faith-in-the-streets-why-christians-should-continue-to-participate-in-the-no-kings-movement-with-joy-and-courage
Links to sources to embed as needed:
Reuters via Cyprus Mail — Musk has spent $366 million to help Republicans retain control of Congress
https://cyprus-mail.com/2026/10/12/musk-has-spent-366-million-to-help-republicans-retain-control-of-congress
Government Accountability Project — SSA whistleblower complaint on DOGE data
https://whistleblower.org/?p=32272
Fortune — Musk says Larry Page called him a “speciesist”
https://fortune.com/2026/04/28/elon-musk-larry-page-robots-specieist-trial-sam-altman-open-ai-ceo/
Axios — Trump says White House didn’t impede satellite system in Ukraine
https://www.axios.com/2026/10/16/trump-starlink-musk-ukraine-zelensky
Al Jazeera — Trump administration sues California over noncitizens on voter rolls
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/15/trump-administration-sues-california-over-noncitizens-on-voter-rolls
USA Today — DOJ charges 28 from the California list, Oct. 19
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/state/california/2026/10/19/doj-noncitizen-voting-registration-arrests-california/92328717007/
Reuters — Federal judge rules DOJ voter-roll screening unlawful, Oct. 9
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-judge-rules-justice-department-use-voter-rolls-unlawful-2026-10-09/
Democracy Docket — Case page, United States v. California
Lyrics by David Byrne’s based on public statements by Musk
Genius Lyrics page for “Let Me Sell You A Dream”
Photos by Michael Christensen from screening of Musk film available by email
