How Much Cocaine Did Cocaine Bear Eat? Did He Kill Anyone?

Film Cocaine Bear was released on 26 February 2023 and had fairly well received. The horror comedy made a gross box office collection of $28.5 million so far. Some ignorant ones might find the storyline far-fetched and unrealistic. But little do they know that the basic plot of a cocaine-overdosed bear is a true story. While the film might portray the bear hilariously, it was a piece of scary and disappointing news for wild animals.

On 9 March 2021, the film was reported to be under development. The Universal Pictures film is directed and produced by Elizabeth Banks. Initially, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett were invited to direct the film. However, they opted to work in the fifth installment of ‘Scream’, another comedy horror. The primary cast includes Keri Russell as Sari, O’Shea Jackson Jr. as Daveed, Alden Ehrenreich as Eddie, and Christian Convery as Henry.

Cocaine Bear: The Real Story

In 1985 an American Black bear was found dead due to an overdose of cocaine. The bear was 175 pounds and was found in northern Georgia, United States. According to the Kentucky Police Department, Andrew C. Thornton II was trafficking cocaine from Colombia into the United States. The plan explained Thornton and an accomplice were flying in an autopilot aircraft. Subsequently, abandoned the aircraft on top of a mountain and dropped 40 plastic containers of cocaine into the forest. Thornton died due to the failure of the parachute function and dropping the load from the aircraft as it was too heavy.

On 23 December, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported finding a dead black bear in the forest. The containers had 34 kilograms of cocaine which was valued at $2 million. The medical examiners stated that the stomach of the poor bear was filled to the brim with cocaine. By the time of death, the creature had absorbed almost two to three kilograms of cocaine. Today the body of the bear is stuffed and presented for display in Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky.

Did The Cocaine Bear Go On A Killing Rampage?

Unlike in the movie, Cocaine Bear did not kill any human or animal in reality. When the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found the creature it was stated that the sighting had been done at first by a hunter but he did not report it. The black bear soon came to be known as the Cocaine bear or Pablo Escobar after the drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar. In 2019, the story inspired Jimmy Warden to recreate it in a horror comedy film.

According to the film, the bear consumes big amounts of missing cocaine in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. And thus it becomes an aggressive killer bear. It attacked two hikers and killed one of them. And over the course of the horror comedy the bear kills more than seven people. So far, ‘Cocaine Bear’ has had average or mixed reviews from Metacritic. Moreover, the film received seventy percent out of 224 critics on Rotten Tomatoes.