Elon Musk has been on the news for his feud with President Donald Trump (which he reportedly regrets now). The media personality and entrepreneur exited DOGE last month and went on a rampage against the President, making some startling statements. However, the SpaceX CEO has now reportedly regretted some of those statements.
Musk has long been controversial, and more so after his takeover of Twitter and rebranding it as X. He currently heads multiple companies, including the EV manufacturer Tesla and the aerospace company SpaceX. Elon Musk reportedly mentioned that the design of one of SpaceX’s vehicles, the Starship, was inspired by Sacha Baron Cohen’s hilarious movie.
How did Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator inspire Elon Musk’s SpaceX design?
Sacha Baron Cohen has made a career out of political satire and has a unique brand of verité comedy. His various characters, like Ali G, Bruno, and Borat, have become pop culture staples, and he often uses his characters to shed light and satirize current affairs, be it political or just cultural.
One of Baron Cohen’s most celebrated movies is The Dictator. The hilarious satire pokes fun not only at dictatorial leaders around the world but also at America’s politics. Many references to America’s politics at the time are made in the movie, including the War on Terror and Osama Bin-Laden’s assassination.
One particular scene reportedly inspired Elon Musk to make some changes to his Starship design. The scene in question is the one where Sacha Baron Cohen’s General Aladeen instructs his nuclear scientist, Nuclear Nadal, to make the missile more pointy.
Musk mentioned to Joe Rogan that the scene inspired him to make a similar demand to his team at SpaceX. He said,
They show him the new missile they’ve developed…but it has kind of a round head, and he says, ‘You need to make it more pointy,’ to his engineers, and actually, that’s why I also decided the same thing…Starship, we need to make it more pointy.
He said that his engineers knew that The Dictator was the inspiration behind it, and they thought it would be funny. Musk mentioned that making the missile more pointed would arguably make it slightly worse.
Sacha Baron Cohen knows that Elon Musk was inspired by The Dictator
It is funny to think that Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, changed the design of one of the most expensive launch vehicles as a joke that was in a Sacha Baron Cohen movie. It might just be a part of his plan to come across as a regular old dude and not the controversial entrepreneur with questionable ethics he usually is.
Still, it is hilarious that Musk, who recently feuded with President Donald Trump after endorsing him during the election and even serving as Senior Advisor, was inspired by The Dictator of all movies. Some jokes just write themselves.
Actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who played Aladeen and co-wrote the movie, is reportedly aware of this and revealed that he had improvised the scene (via GQ).
Apparently, Elon Musk saw ‘The Dictator’ and then insisted that one of his SpaceX rockets was more pointed to make it fly better. Actually, he was aware it’d make it fly slightly worse. But he thought it was a funny thing to do.
Musk has often presented himself as someone who would just do things ‘for the lolz’, like suggesting to invest in Doge Coins and even buying Twitter. But this instance probably takes the cake.
The Dictator is currently available to stream on Paramount+.
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