Elon Musk mocked for Tesla complaint about new Netflix movie

12 December, 2023

Elon Musk

Elon Musk has received criticism online after discussing a Tesla scene in the new Netflix film.

Titled Leave The World Behind, the film is a new post-apocalyptic thriller from Sam Esmail – the creator of the hit series Mr Robot – and reached the top of its most-watched charts shortly after its release on Netflix on Friday (December 8).

It follows the narrative of a society which begins to unravel and descend into chaos after technological infrastructure begins to malfunction and shut down. It is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama and is an adaptation of the 2020 novel of the same name, written by Rumaan Alam.

However, based on a new post he shared on X/Twitter, it seems that Elon Musk may have misunderstood the meaning of one of the scenes in the film – and the internet has been quick to criticise him for the blunder.

The moment concerns a scene with Teslas in the film, where characters played by Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke are chased by the malfunctioning cars which are moving without drivers. Ultimately, the tech-heavy cars begin to crash into one another and lead to a huge pile-up in the road.

“Teslas can charge from solar panels even if the world goes fully Mad Max and there is no more gasoline!” wrote Musk, seemingly believing that the scene contained a plot inaccuracy, claiming that the cars would still work during an apocalypse, rather than realising that the cars depicted were hacked to chase people.

“Elon should rewatch the movie,” one user wrote in response (via The Independent), while a second questioned whether he saw the film at all: “This guy didn’t watch the movie”.

“Maybe it’s just me, but in the movie Leave the World Behind, It appears Obama is taking a direct shot at Elon Musk and Tesla in the crash scene. Coincidence? I think not,” another wrote, looking into the meaning of the scene.

This isn’t the first time that the business mogul has come under fire for what he has shared on social media. Earlier this year, the current owner of X was perceived by many as endorsing anti-semitic talking points. This came as he replied to a tweet that claimed Jewish communities supported “dialectical hatred against whites”, Musk stated, “You have said the actual truth.”

Musk later backtracked, and attempted to claim he was referring to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and claimed the group refuses to “criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat”. Musk has provided no evidence to back up his claims, however, and has kept his original reply up on the platform. He has claimed in a post that he is not antisemitic, and that “nothing could be further from the truth.”

Leave the World Behind is available to stream on Netflix now.

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