I assure you, Mr. Bond, that your ride on my Hyperloop will be brief.

May 30, 2014 10:41 PM

Has anyone written any fiction portraying Elon Musk as a villain? The story can either be interpreting his real actions as villainous, or creating fictional villainy for him to do.
posted by michaelh to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

I assume by the lack of responses that no one knows of such a work, and neither do I. Consider that it's generally a bad idea to write untrue things about living people, even if you disclaim it as fiction. I doubt any publisher would want to take the risk of Mr. Musk mounting an expensive libel or other similar lawsuit against them.
posted by Aleyn at 11:03 AM on May 31, 2014

No. No one has.
posted by Hobo at 1:30 PM on May 31, 2014

Not a book or anything but Voz in Machete Kills was loosely based on Musk. Musk even has a cameo.
posted by M Edward at 2:50 PM on May 31, 2014

Does Tony Stark/Iron Man not count? OTOH Musk himself is flattered by the comparison and bought one of the movie's prop suits (and had a cameo in IM2).

(Although Iron Man is seen as a 'superhero' the character's original conception, which seeps through into the films in variously effective ways, is as an antihero).
posted by dhartung at 12:57 PM on June 1, 2014

I'd heard that Sam Rockwell almost played Stark and Downey almost played Hammer. I think that Downey's Hammer, if played as confidently as his Stark, might have been pretty close to villain Musk.

I'm not up on my comic but isn't there a Stark Industries storyline that has Tony aggressively pushing for certain goals in a questionable way?

M Edward, that character does indeed seem to have been influenced by Musk.
posted by michaelh at 10:31 PM on June 1, 2014