Imagine a 500-pound apex predator high on cocaine set loose in a national park with a taste for human flesh. That is a loose plot summary for the movie Cocaine Bear, released in late February. What’s even more shocking about the movie, is that it’s loosely based on true events.
The movie takes place in 1985, in the height of the Reagan administration’s War on Drugs. A drug smuggler attempts to parachute out of a plane with dozens of kilos of cocaine into Georgia. His parachute fails to open, and the cocaine drops into the forest below. It drops down beside a bear’s cave, and the bear gets into it, thus creating the cocaine bear. Criminals and police race to recover the cocaine while helpless hikers and park rangers flee from the hungry drug addicted bear.
The most shocking aspect of the movie is that it’s based off of true events. The real events of Cocaine Bear fortunately did not play out like the movie, however. In real life, in 1985, there was a drug smuggler who jumped out of a plane with around 40 kilos of cocaine, but due to the heavy load, his parachute did not open. Three months later, a bear was found dead in northern Georgia along with 40 opened packages of cocaine. The bear presumedly ate the cocaine and died. The bear was stuffed and is currently on display in a mall in Lexington, Kentucky. Luckily, it never even came close to attacking, let alone eating anyone, which is where the movie takes its strongest creative liberty.
The movie is a dark comedy, with strong elements of horror, but lots of tension-breaking moments of humor. Cocaine Bear also features some actors you may be familiar with, such as Jesse Tyler Ferguson from Modern Family, O’Shea Jackson Junior from Straight Outta Compton, Alden Ehrenreich from Solo: A Star Wars Story, Kristofer Hivju from Game of Thrones, and most notably the late Ray Liotta from Goodfellas. This would be the last movie Ray Liotta would star in before his death. The movie also features Scott Seiss, who you may see on TikTok frequently.
Despite how dumb and simple the plot of the movie sounds, it is a decent movie. It has a good production value for its 35-million-dollar budget, and the notable cast adds to the horror and hilarity of this movie. Overall, I would recommend watching this movie if you are a fan of the dark comedy genre, and I would rate it a 7/10.
Ben Dewitt can be reached at [email protected]