Inigo Montoya is not having any of Elon Musk’s nonsense—or at least, Mandy Patinkin isn’t. On Wednesday, the Princess Bride actor who made the phrase “prepare to die” famous called out Musk for bungling a reference to the film. During a recent (bonkers) CNBC interview, the Tesla CEO attempted to dodge a question about his haphazard tweeting with a reference to the 1987 adventure-comedy film.
In a video clip from the interview, Musk gives a long pause before he offers his response. “There’s a scene in The Princess Bride—great movie—where he [Montoya] confronts the person who killed his father. And he says, ‘Offer me money. Offer me power. I don’t care.’”
“I’ll say what I want to say,” Musk added soon after, “and if the consequence of that is losing money, then so be it.”
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Musk got the gist of the line in terms of words on the page (although definitely not exactly) but the real puzzler here is the meaning.
It’s unclear what thematic thread Musk believes unites him with Patinkin’s Princess Bride character, or why he believes that his incessant tweeting is at all comparable to Montoya’s quest to avenge his father’s death. Musk and his father are estranged, but the man is very much alive; in fact, Errol Musk just recently gave an interview in The Sun about that emerald mine that supposedly funded his son’s career.
Patinkin found a succinct way to skewer the bizarre reference with a callback of his own. Citing one of his most popular lines from the film—one of many that’s become a prolific meme over the years—the actor retweeted the interview clip with the caption, “I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Between this and Patinkin’s recent viral appearance at a WGA protest (complete with a picket sign emblazoned with the words “You killed my residuals, prepare to die”) there’s never been a better time to stan Inigo Montoya.
