Netflix users mock Elon Musk over his Leave the World Behind complaint

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Louise Thomas

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Netflix users are mocking Elon Musk after the Tesla founder took exception to a scene about his cars in the new film Leave the World Behind.

The lengthy post-apocalyptic thriller, from Mr Robot creator Sam Esmail, was released on the streaming service on Friday (8 December), and has since shot to the top of its most-watched charts.

Adapted from the 2020 novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, and produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, Leave the World Behind follows a society that unravels after the technological infrastructure begins to collapse.

One person who has seemingly abstained from watching the film is Musk, who replied to a clip, posted by Netflix, to point out what he believes to be a plot inaccuracy.

During the film, a married couple – played by Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke – are chased by driverless Teslas. They end up crashing into each other, causing a massive pile-up in the road.

In response to the scene, Musk wrote on X/Twitter: “Teslas can charge from solar panels even if the world goes fully Mad Max and there is no more gasoline!”

The Tesla founder was attempting to highlight that the cars could survive an electric-free apocalyptic situation – but he clearly has not watched the film. In Leave the World Behind, these Teslas can run fine – they have just seemingly been hacked to chase people.

“This guy didn’t watch the movie,” one viewer wrote, with another stating: “Elon should rewatch the movie.”

“Best thing about Leave the World Behind is it triggered Elon,” an additional Netflix subscriber stated.

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Writer-director Esmail also shared Musk’s post, writing: “My movie LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND is now streaming on Netflix.”

The film has overtaken Christmas comedy Family Switch in Netflix’s most-watched charts. Among the films to trail Leave the World Behind on the Netflix charts is the body-swap comedy Family Switch.

Released earlier this month, Family Switch provoked some degree of controversy among viewers thanks to a joke centring on an “incestuous” kiss.

Leave the World Behind and Family Switch are both available to stream on Netflix now.

Find the full list of films being added to the service this month here – and another list compiling all the titles being removed here.