Cocaine Bear True Story: The Facts Behind The Pablo Eskobear Movie

Cocaine Bear is a real movie, and as much like an April Fools’ Day prank as its premise seems — that a bear eats cocaine and goes on a rampage — Cocaine Bear is based on actual events. Elizabeth Banks’ latest project Cocaine Bear is literally a movie about a bear ingesting 75 pounds of cocaine. The estimated value of the cocaine the bear eats in Cocaine Bear is around $15 million (if the Cocaine Bear movie follows the true story), so a hunt for the missing drugs obviously ensued before the bear was discovered. Judging by the Cocaine Bear trailer, this is when the titular cocaine bear — dubbed Pablo Eskobear when the media broke the true story in 1985 — starts causing mayhem.

The plot seems ridiculous, but in such a way that it already looks set to be a breakout success when the Cocaine Bear release date of 24th February 2023 rolls around. As surreal as the idea of a bear eating cocaine is, it did happen in real life. The Cocaine Bear true story took place in Kentucky and Georgia in 1985. A drug smuggler made an ill-fated attempt to airdrop a shipment of cocaine over Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest from a small plane. He never lived to retrieve the package, but the real-life bear who ate cocaine didn’t quite go on the blood-fueled rampage Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear movie portrays. Here’s the surprisingly somber true story behind Cocaine Bear.

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The Cocaine Bear Is Real

Cocaine Bear is a real movie based on actual events, and many are rightly wondering how and why a bear ate cocaine. It all happened because of drug smuggler Andrew Carter Thornton. Thornton did not always have a career as a drug smuggler. He was once a narcotics officer on the Lexington, Kentucky police force during the height of the War On Drugs. He resigned to practice law in 1977, but eventually wound up working on the other side of the narcotics trade. By 1980, a federal indictment alleged he was a member of a smuggling ring involving other police officers. He was arrested and charged multiple times for smuggling drugs and weapons and attempting to steal weapons from a naval base. Unfortunately for the bear from Cocaine Bear (and its victims), that was not the end of his smuggling career.

As is always the case for the inspiration of a crime thriller, something went wrong. The Snakes on a Plane-like story behind Cocaine Bear played out because of an idea so obviously doomed to failure that even the injury-hungry Jackass crew wouldn’t attempt it. Thornton planned a daring drug smuggling operation in which he would fly over the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia, throw duffel bags of cocaine into the forest below, and then parachute down himself. However, his parachute did not open. His body was found in a driveway in Tennessee, still carrying 77 pounds of cocaine. Authorities then started to find cocaine dropped in the forest, but the last duffel bag eluded them for two months. As it turned out, a black bear found it first. What would be discovered next would go on to have near urban-legend status, and would inspire Charlie’s Angels 2019 reboot director Elizabeth Banks to make the Cocaine Bear movie.

The Real Bear Who Ate Cocaine Didn’t Kill Anyone

The rest of Andrew Carter Thornton’s shipment was found by police along with the bear who ate cocaine. When the authorities finally tracked down the last bag of cocaine, they found it completely empty, missing the 75 pounds of cocaine worth approximately $15 million that was supposed to be inside of it. At the same spot, they found a dead bear who had overdosed on cocaine. This story quickly earned the bear the nicknames “Cocaine Bear” and “Pablo Eskobear,” after the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Further investigation, though, revealed another mystery.

The black bear died of a long list of causes associated with a fatal drug overdose of the kind Uma Thurman’s Mia narrowly avoided in Pulp Fiction: cerebral hemorrhage, respiratory failure, heart failure, stroke, hyperthermia, and renal failure, among other symptoms. The real-life bear from Cocaine Bear had a stomach completely full of cocaine. No living being was made to consume that much cocaine at one time. However, the autopsy revealed that the bear only had four grams of cocaine in its blood. It could not possibly consume all 75 pounds, especially when even a small portion of a pound could cause its catastrophic organ failure. Millions of dollars of cocaine had was still missing.

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As for the real Pablo Eskobear, the bear that inspired Cocaine Bear was stuffed, as apparently the cocaine overdose had left its remains in good condition. While the Cocaine Bear movie is set in Georgia (a similar location to where Deliverance was filmed), the real Cocaine Bear currently resides in Kentucky. It’s now a tourist attraction in Lexington. Pablo Eskobear is still displayed there, along with a warning about the dangers of narcotics and the illegal drug trade.

The Cocaine Bear Movie Won’t Be 100% Accurate

Cocaine Bear is inspired by a true story, but it isn’t a Pablo Eskobear biopic. It was never intended to be a movie about what really happened when a bear ate cocaine. Director Elizabeth Banks is an accomplished actress and producer, and has starred in many incredibly subversive dark comedies like Slither, and more outright thrillers like Brightburn and The Uninvited. While there’s no doubt she could do a heartfelt drama about the dangers of the illegal narcotics trade, or the impact of human activity on wildlife, the chances she was going to were always slim. Cocaine Bear promises to be similar in tone to James Gunn’s Slither in that it promises plenty of gore, action, and tension, but all served with a great sense of humor and subtle social commentary.

Cocaine Bear will likely have undertones of the heavier sentiments around nature and wildlife somewhere, but the movie is primarily about a bear that eats cocaine, goes on a rampage, and kills a bunch of people. The Cocaine Bear trailer has already revealed that the movie is exactly as out there and outrageous as the premise suggests, but this also means that beyond the location and circumstance, Cocaine Bear will be a far from accurate retelling of what actually happened to the real bear who ate cocaine.

What Happened To The Cocaine Pablo Eskobear Didn’t Eat?

The real cocaine bear ranks among the strangest inspirations for a movie, and is more like Samuel L Jackson’s Snakes on a Plane than real life should ever be. It’s no surprise that the true Cocaine Bear story is still partly unsolved. The remaining cocaine vanished, leading many people to pin the entire crime on the unfortunate Pablo Eskobear. On top of his overdose, he bears undeserved blame for the disappearance of millions of dollars in drugs. Since he consumed less than a pound, over 74 pounds were unaccounted for. Since authorities only found one bear who had reached its cocaine limit, a less furry culprit had to be responsible.

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One of Thornton’s partners — a Jesse to his Walt, to make a Breaking Bad comparison — may have returned to find it. Either that, or a hiker may have accidentally stumbled upon the valuable find in the forest. The drug enforcement officer on the case, however, speculated that the disappearance was more natural. Packages for the cocaine were still there, so the drugs may have been scattered over the forest and dissolved in snowfalls during the two-month search.

The inspiration for the titular Cocaine Bear and the missing cocaine aren’t the only true story of strange rural disappearances. However, the real incident is so bizarre that it still fascinates tourists, and, when the 24th February 2023 Cocaine Bear release date rolls around, it will delight moviegoers too. Elizabeth Banks’ movie may attempt to fill in the blanks of what happened to the rest of the cocaine, though Banks’ story may center more on a conflict with a heavily drugged bear than the real story likely did. The real bear from Cocaine Bear probably would have been able to do much before succumbing to overdose.

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