The Global Story: Citizen Vigilante and Elon Musk’s war on ‘woke’ films
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.3K Ratings
🗓️ 12 July 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Citizen Vigilante is a low-budget action thriller starring actor Armie Hammer as a vigilante who hunts down migrant criminals in Europe. The movie faced a muted reception - until Elon Musk posted it to his hundreds of millions of followers on X.com. We speak to journalist Mike Wendling to understand why this film has become a lightning rod for political and cultural debate, and what its sudden rise reveals about the far-reaching influence of the world’s richest man.
The Global Story brings clarity to politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and disruption. For more episodes, just search 'The Global Story' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.8 | Hi there, it's Tristan Redmond, one of the hosts of the Global Story podcast from the BBC, |
| 0:11.4 | and as a bonus for your feed, we're bringing you one of our best episodes of the week. |
| 0:16.7 | You might have seen shots of the publicity tour for one of the biggest movies of the year |
| 0:20.9 | all over your socials this week. |
| 0:22.8 | Christopher Nolan's latest epic, The Odyssey, features many of Hollywood's most bankable stars. |
| 0:30.0 | And early reviews have been glowing. |
| 0:32.1 | But this week, we looked at the phenomenon around a movie that's had a much harder time finding a platform |
| 0:39.2 | and how it became a lightning rod in Elon Musk's war on so-called woke culture. And if you |
| 0:46.5 | enjoy this episode, every weekday we tell one story where the world and America meet. You could find |
| 0:53.5 | more by searching for the global story wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:57.6 | Now, enjoy the show. |
| 0:59.6 | You might remember a few months ago that Elon Musk got quite upset about the director |
| 1:05.0 | Christopher Nolan's new movie adaptation of The Odyssey. |
| 1:09.9 | Musk published a string of posts criticizing Nolan for casting LePeter Niyongo, a black |
| 1:16.9 | actor, is one of the central characters. |
| 1:20.0 | He said that role should have been given to a white actor and that Nolan was afraid of |
| 1:25.8 | being accused of racism. |
| 1:28.5 | Musk wanted to take down the Odyssey for being part of Hollywood culture, |
| 1:33.9 | which some on the right believe is dominated by the left. |
| 1:40.0 | Fast forward to now, and Musk has been posting about a film that's been firmly rejected by some people on the left. |
| 1:50.3 | It's a violent thriller called Citizen Vigilante. |
... |
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