Elon Musk has starred in several movies over the years, with the likes of Iron Man 2 and Machete Kills on his CV, while also expressing his love of the sci-fi genre. We don't imagine the world's richest man gets much time to kick back as he runs everything from Tesla to SpaceX, but in previous interviews, Mr. Musk has cited the likes of Blade Runner and 1998's underrated Dark City as some of his favorites. When it comes to his top film of all time, does Elon Musk's love of space mean it's any real surprise that it's Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope?
Maybe it's the record-breaking Artemis 2 mission taking mankind back to the moon for the first time since 1972, but it really feels like the Star Wars fever of the '70s has hit us all over again.
It definitely looks that way at the box office, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's Project Hail Mary duking it out with an equally space-themed film, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
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With a domestic box office that passed $228.5 million in just 20 days, Project Hail Mary has already bested Ridley Scott's The Martian. More than just Ryan Gosling and Matt Damon playing dashing astronauts stuck on their own in the cosmos, both Project Hail Mary and The Martian share more DNA than you might think. Despite the movies having very different directors, they do feel oddly similar at points – we assume due to the writing style of Andy Weir and the fact that Drew Goddard wrote the screenplay for both.
Although we don't know whether Musk has sat down and watched Project Hail Mary yet, he gave a three-word response to a resurfaced interview where Weir said he doesn't write social commentary into his books.
Back in 2017, Weir told Futurism: "I dislike social commentary. Like...I really hate it. When I’m reading a book, I just want to be entertained, not preached at by the author. Plus, it ruins the wonder of the story if I know the author has a political or social axe to grind.
“I no longer speculate about all possible outcomes of the story because I know for a fact that the universe of that book will conspire to ensure that the author’s political agenda is validated. I hate that."
Noting that Weir reiterated he puts "no politics or social commentary into my stories at all," Musk responded to this with a simple, "Good for him," on X.
Back in Weir's original interview, the author said that anyone who thinks they can find a message in his stories is reading it on their own: "I have no point to make, and I’m not trying to affect the reader’s opinion on anything. My sole job is to entertain, and I stick to that."
Weir has seemingly doubled down on these ideas and recently came under fire, being forced to apologize to Star Trek boss Alex Kurtzman for saying the newer shows are 'sh*t'. Also on The Critical Drinker podcast, where he slammed Star Trek, Weir thanked critic Will Jordan for noting that Project Hail Mary doesn't have any "crappy identity politics."
In response to this, Weir concluded: "I think you and me are kind of on the same wavelength there when it comes to fiction writing. I never put any politics or messaging in any of my stories at all. There's no deeper meaning; there isn't even any symbolism, even non-political.
“There's just no symbolism at all. My books are just purely to entertain."
We all know Musk's views on 'identity politics', so this might be why Weir's comments have resonated with him so much.