Leave the World Behind: Elon Musk Responds to Netflix Movie’s Tesla Crash Scene

Netflix’s new movie Leave the World Behind is now streaming and there’s one scene everyone is talking about, the Tesla crashes. To divulge further about what this means for Leave the World Behind we’ll have to issue a spoiler warning, but here’s what happens. Throughout the movie it’s unclear WHO is attacking America, only that SOMONE is attacking America, and part of this is reveal is a major cyberattack. This takes the form of disabled internet access and no cell phone service as well as crashing airplanes and boats. One of the more tense scenes in Leave the World Behind however comes when the lead characters are attacked by a fleet of Teslas, without drivers. Naturally, Elon Musk has responded.

In the film, Amanda, played by Julia Roberts, is trying to get her family, Clay (Ethan Hawke), Archie (Charlie Evans), and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie), to a family member’s house in New Jersey. The trouble of course is that a massive cyber attack has taken place, seemingly with the intention of mostly just causing chaos. Using the self-driving capabilities of the Teslas, the cyber attack forces the cars to crash into each other in a pile to block the roads and make the large highways and streets inoperable.

Netflix posted this specific scene on X, formerly Twitter, which naturally drew a response from none other than Elon Musk himself, the CEO of Tesla Motors. He writes in response: “Teslas can charge from solar panels even if the world goes fully Mad Max and there is no more gasoline!” It’s unclear what that has to do with the scene itself, since the actual moment is about hackers using Teslas as automatons to destroy road infrastructure, and also it’s all fiction. Watch the scene for yourself below.

Leave the World Behind is now streaming on Netflix. The new movie from Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail is sitting at a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a 74% approval rating and 98 critical reviews. Audiences have been less kind with the movie earning a 43% audience rating.

In this apocalyptic thriller from award-winning writer and director Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot), Amanda (Academy Award winner Julia Roberts) and her husband Clay (Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke), rent a luxurious home for the weekend with their kids, Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie). Their vacation is soon upended when two strangers – G.H. (Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la) – arrive in the night, bearing news of a mysterious cyberattack and seeking refuge in the house they claim is theirs. The two families reckon with a looming disaster that grows more terrifying by the minute, forcing everyone to come to terms with their places in a collapsing world. Based on the National Book Award-nominated novel by Rumaan Alam, LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND is produced by Esmail Corp, Red Om Films, and executive produced by Higher Ground Productions.