Elizabeth Banks and Universal Pictures’ title Cocaine Bear might sound a bit ridiculous, but it told viewers exactly what they needed to know before watching it. It was about a bear doing cocaine, and the chaos that followed. Despite the absurd nature of the premise, Cocaine Bear was, believe it or not, inspired by true events. This has led people to question how historically accurate the film was to those events.
In the mid-1980s, a drug-smuggling duo smuggled cocaine from Colombia to the United States. While flying a Cessna 404 Titan, Andrew C. Thornton II found that his cargo was too heavy and decided to jettison 40 containers into the American wilderness. A black bear found and ripped open the containers, consuming nearly 75 pounds of cocaine. But was what happened next similar to what happened in the movie? Here’s the true story of the real cocaine bear, explained.
Were any of the characters in the movie real people?
At the beginning of the film, Andrew C. Thornton II (Matthew Rhys) dumped his cargo before attempting to jump out of his plane. In doing so, he hit his head against the door frame, causing him to lose consciousness and fall to his death. While “Andrew C. Thornton II” was indeed the name of the real person who dropped the charge, the details of his death were changed for the film. In real life, Thornton failed to knock himself unconscious and died from a malfunctioning parachute. Thornton was 40 when he died and was a convicted drug smuggler, the head of a Kentucky smuggling ring, and a former police officer and attorney who had previously trained as a parachutist.
On the morning of September 11, 1985, Fred Myers looked out the window of his home in Knoxville, Tennesse and found Thornton’s body in his backyard (via The Washington Post). Myers was an 85-year-old retired engineer at the time and noted that he had “never had a landing before” in his backyard. Thornton was found entangled in a parachute with a broken neck while wearing a body armor, night vision goggles and Gucci loafers. He also carried weapons and as reported by the Associated Presswith nearly 80 pounds of cocaine.
Cocaine Bear‘s Sari (Keri Russell), Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich), and Syd (Ray Liotta) were all fictional characters and were not based on a real person like Thornton. The film portrayed its CG bear as a fiercely protective mother while her real life counterpart was known to have no cubs.
How many people has the cocaine bear killed in real life?
Cocaine Bear depicted its titular bear going on a murderous rampage. The long list of victims included Elsa, Peter, Vest, Tom, Olaf, and Syd, and those were just the people who died on screen. However, in real life, the cocaine bear is not known to have killed anyone. Humans dying from black bear attacks are quite rare, with AZ Animals listing an average of one fatal black bear attack each year in North America. The National Park Service has claimed that bears are usually only interested in “protecting food, cubs, or their space.” beer.orgthere is no record of a mother black bear killing anyone to defend her cubs.
What the real cocaine bear did after consuming cocaine has remained shrouded in mystery. Why the bear was so attracted to the smell of the cocaine has also remained unknown, and this incident is of course considered a very unusual occurrence.
The over-the-top nature of Cocaine Bear should be enough to remind viewers that it’s not real, but critics are already starting to worry about the film’s potential socio-cultural impact. Their concerns revolved around whether audiences would be able to fully differentiate between the movie’s monstrous killer and actual black bears. When Jaws released in 1975, many developed a fear of sharks, but sharks were also hunted more for sport. After the film’s release, the number of large sharks east of North America dropped dramatically by about 50% (via Smithsonian Magazine). Of Cocaine Bear depicting a black bear as an unstoppable beast, some may feel challenged and inspired to hunt the animal.
What happened to the cocaine bear?
The bear inside Cocaine Bear managed to survive the events of the film and left the door open for her to return in a potential sequel. The real cocaine bear had a very different fate and died of a fatal overdose. Three months after Thornton dumped his load, the bear’s body was found with a significant amount of cocaine in its stomach.
After being stuffed, the bear was given to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area before being put on display at the “Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall” in Lexington. The bear has been on display ever since, and with the popularity of Cocaine Bearthe mall is definitely about to attract a lot more visitors.
Cocaine Bear director Elizabeth Banks called the bear a victim of America’s “War on Drugs”, describing her film as the bear’s “revenge story”.