by Watch the trailer for Cocaine Bear
The story behind Cocaine bear Stit seems too incredible to be true.
Elizabeth Banks’ new comedy-thriller, due out next month, tells the story of a black bear who goes on a murderous rampage after eating huge amounts of cocaine.
The movie’s tagline states that it’s “inspired by true events,” but how much Of Cocaine bear did it really happen?
The real story behind Cocaine Bear
The story of Cocaine bear is loosely based on the events of a drug smuggling operation gone awry in September 1985.
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Andrew Thornton, a former U.S. narcotics officer, was dropping bags of cocaine into Georgia from a light aircraft during a smuggling run from Colombia. After reporting engine trouble, he jumped out, but hit his head on the tail of the plane and his parachute failed to deploy.
The 40-year-old died on impact on a driveway in Knoxville, Tennessee, 50 miles away. He wore night-vision goggles, a bulletproof vest and Gucci loafers, and carried guns, knives, thousands of dollars in cash, as well as $15 million worth of cocaine packages. The self-driving plane was later found to have crashed in Hayesville, North Carolina.
Three months later, a 170-pound black bear was found dead in Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest after eating cocaine from a bag left behind by Thornton.
Gary Garner, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) official, said: ‘The bear got there before we could, and he opened his duffel bag, took cocaine from him and he overdosed. [of the bear] but bones and a thick hide.”
It is unclear how much the bear ingested. All 40 packages of cocaine – 40 kg in total, worth $20 million – had been ripped open and were empty. An autopsy found that the animal absorbed only three or four grams of cocaine into its bloodstream, although it could have eaten more.
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There is no evidence, however, that the bear went on a rampage, as depicted in Cocaine bear. In reality, the animal likely died quickly after ingesting the drug. “It wouldn’t have taken much to kill him,” said another GBI official, Fran Wiley. “He could have eaten a pound and it would have killed him.”
The animal’s stomach was “literally filled to the brim with cocaine,” according to the coroner who performed the autopsy. “There’s not a mammal on the planet that could survive this. Brain hemorrhage, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, kidney failure, heart failure, stroke. You name it, that bear had it.”
Legend has it that the bear was taxidermied and donated to a visitor center near the forest, before disappearing in the 1990s. It is said to have ended up in a pawn shop in Nashville, Tennessee before being purchased by country music legend Waylon Jennings. Today, the Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington claims to have the stuffed remains of “Pablo Esco-bear.”
According to director Elizabeth Banks, the film’s message is simple: “If you fuck with nature, nature will fuck with you.” She told Total Film magazine: ‘I thought this bear was collateral damage [in] a broken war on drugs. I had a lot of empathy for that. I thought this film could be the story of the bear’s revenge.”
Who is in the cast of Cocaine Bear?
Cocaine Bear plays the late Ray Liotta in one of his last performances. The Good guys The actor, who died last year at the age of 67, plays Dentwood, a drug kingpin on the hunt for cocaine.
The ensemble cast also includes The Americans actor Keri Russell as a worried mother searching for her missing daughter – played by rising star Brooklynn Prince – in the woods.
Other stars include Modern family actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) And Sweetnessby Christian Convery-Jennings.
The film was produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, best known for their work on The Lego Movie And Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verseand written by Jimmy Warden.
Cocaine bear will be released on February 24th.
