We wrote a bit about Cocaine Bear last year when the movie was first announced, but now the first poster has been released it’s time to get properly excited.
First of all – the title. ‘Cocaine Bear’ has to be the most intriguing film title of all time. When you find out that it’s based on a hilarious (and tragic) true story, it’s even better. Back in 1985, a man named Andrew C Thornton, a former lawyer and narcotics officer turned drug smuggler, was transporting some cocaine from Colombia to the US on a small plane that he was flying himself. At one point, Thornton dropped one of the packages out of the plane as he flew over Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia.
A friendly 175lb black bear happened upon this duffle bag packed with 75lbs (35kg) of cocaine. He proceeded to snort/eat the ENTIRE bag, and died of a cocaine overdose right there in the woods. Which has to be the only recorded bear cocaine overdose in history. In November 1985, a hunter discovered the dead bear in the forest, plus the destroyed duffel bag nearby. The chief medical examiner at the Georgia State Crime Lab said the bear’s stomach was “literally packed to the brim with cocaine.”
The story gets even crazier. On the same drug run, Thornton’s dead body was discovered by police in a driveway in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was heavily armed, wearing a bulletproof vest, and carrying thousands of dollars in cash and about 77 lbs of cocaine (valued at around $14 million) in a duffel bag strapped around his waist. He had apparently died when his parachute failed to open after he jumped from his plane, which authorities later discovered about 60 miles away. Thornton had directed the aircraft toward the Atlantic Ocean and set it to autopilot before making his ill-fated jump.
So that’s what the film is about. Obviously it will be fictionalised to a degree, with the bear going on “a murderous rampage” while supercharged on 75lbs of Colombian cocaine. The film also features a posthumous Ray Liotta in his final performance before his death. A hell of a way to cap off his career for sure.
Oh yeah, you can also go and see Cocaine Bear in person. They stuffed him and he’s currently on display at a shopping mall in Kentucky. Not even joking:
Amazing. Can’t wait for this to drop in February 2023. Simply can’t fail with a plotline like that, right? Now check out the trailer to Christian Bale’s new horror movie ‘The Pale Blue Eye’.
