PABLO ESKOBEAR! The insane real-life story that inspired Elizabeth Banks' 'Cocaine Bear'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Over the years, we have seen a lot of superhero movies and wondered if there will be a time that we will be able to people in them in our lives. It’s impossible to have strength like the Hulk and the powers of Thor and it’s equally impossible to think that an animal would do cocaine and go on a killing spree. Well, Elizabeth Banks has done the unthinkable and come forward with a movie, titled ‘Cocaine Bear’, which sees a Black Bear killing everyone that comes in front of him after ingesting multiple packets of the harmful drug.
First things first, this movie does not glamorize cocaine and actually tells you how harmful they are. Also, it is worth noticing that the movie has actually been inspired by real-life events that took place in 1985. Yes, you heard it right. There was a black bear that did cocaine after multiple packs of the life-threatening drug fell into the forest in 1985. But there is a lot of difference between the real-life story and the story that viewers see on the big screen.
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So, let’s take a look at what happened in 1985 and why people started calling the animal ‘Pablo Eskobear’.
Is ‘Cocaine Bear’ based on a true story?
According to several media outlets, the incident happened in 1985, when a former narcotics officer turned drug smuggler named Andrew Thornton was smuggling drugs into the US from Columbia and was throwing the packages out of the plane into the Tennessee Valley. The plan was to send the packages down and get down with the help of a parachute. However, things went downhill after he and one of his accomplices threw some packages down in Northern Georgia and the additional 40 packages of cocaine were dumped into Chattahoochee National Forest.
The last part of the plan included Thornton jumping out of the plane and landing safely because of the parachute. However, Thornton hit his head on the tail of the plane and his parachute didn’t open. The plane crashed into the mountains of North Carolina and Thornton’s dead body was found in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The authorities confirmed that the death of Thornton and the plane crash are connected. So, they followed the flight path and managed to recover almost nine bags of cocaine. But a lot of them were missing and the mystery of those remaining bags was solved in December 1985.
What happened in December 1985?
For months, the authorities searched for missing bags of cocaine and on December 23, 1985, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was able to find where all the remaining bags went. The organization found a dead black bear in the forest and when they did an autopsy, they found that the animal ingested over 34kgs of the drug that was valued at more than $2 million. According to a report in the New York Times in December 1985, “a 175-pound black bear apparently died of an overdose after discovering a batch of the drug. The report also confirmed that the dead body of the bear was found among opened containers with “traces of cocaine.”
As soon as the news surfaced, people started calling the bear “Pablo Eskobear” and the beast’s body is currently on display at the Kentucky Fun Mall.
Is ‘Cocaine Bear’ worth watching?
The first wave of reviews suggests that ‘Cocaine Bear’ is exactly what it was supposed to be: a crazy ride filled with a lot of comedy and a whole lot of killings. The movie currently holds a rating of 69% on the review site Rotten Tomatoes.
The film stars Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Aiden Ehrenreich, Ray Liotta, Christian Convery, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Brooklyn Prince in pivotal roles.
‘Cocaine Bear’ is currently playing in theatres.