FEBRUARY 2024:
The Bear Drug Necessities…
The title alone is intriguing, Cocaine Bear, you hear it and already you know there is a story there, and it can only be wild enough for a Hollywood film. There is absolutely no way the story is inspired by actual events, you would be wrong if you thought that however, because there is in fact a Cocaine Bear. But that story will come later, this critique focuses on the film inspired by the events of December 1985. Cocaine Bear is a 2023 comedy horror film directed by Elizabeth Banks and written by Jimmy Warden. It is loosely inspired by the true story of the “Cocaine Bear“, an American black bear that ingested several kilograms of a bag containing about 75 lb. (34 kg.) of lost cocaine. The film stars Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ray Liotta. It is dedicated to Liotta, who died in May 26th, 2022.
Cocaine Bear was released in the United States on February 24, 2023, by Universal Pictures. The film opened to generally positive reviews from critics and grossed over $90 million against a production budget of $30–35 million.
Cast…
Keri Russell as Sari:
Sari ventures into the forest to search for her daughter, She is accompanied by Liz, a park ranger, and Peter, a wildlife activist. They find Henry clinging to a tree, hiding from the bear. It attacks, sending Peter stumbling through a pile of cocaine and slashing Liz in the process. The bear tries to climb the tree to attack Henry but gets attracted to a cocaine-coated Peter.
Alden Ehrenreich as Eddie
In St. Louis, Syd sends his fixer Daveed to recover the missing cocaine. So, he travels to Georgia with Eddie, Syd’s son, who has grown depressed following the death of his wife Joan and has abandoned his own son Gabe.
O’Shea Jackson Jr. as Daveed
At the forest station, Daveed gets into a fight with the Duchamps gang, three delinquents who cause trouble in the forest. After he beats them, one of the members, Stache, agrees to take Daveed and Eddie to recover some of the cocaine he stashed in a gazebo.
Ray Liotta as Syd
The cocaine at the center of the film and obsession of a bear is from St. Louis drug kingpin Syd White.
Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Bob
When Andrew Thornton II‘s body lands in Knoxville, Tennessee, he is identified by Bob, a local detective. He concludes that the cocaine is likely from St. Louis drug kingpin Syd White, and the remainder is missing. Bob goes in search of the cocaine all the way to northeast Georgia.
Brooklynn Prince as Dee Dee
In northeast Georgia, middle schooler Dee Dee lives with her mother, Sari. Dee Dee skips school with her best friend Henry in order to paint a picture of the falls in the forest. On the trail to the falls, they find a lost brick of cocaine and ingest some before they are attacked by the bear.
Christian Convery as Henry
Henry accompanies his best friend Dee Dee as they skip school to head to the forest where Dee Dee can paint the scenery, only a drug crazed bear is sharing the forest with them, and wants the cocaine they find along the way.
Margo Martindale as Ranger Liz
Liz arrives back at the station, pursued by the bear, after accompanying Sari to find her daughter Dee Dee in the forest when the bear follows her back.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Peter
Peter is a wildlife activist that park ranger Liz is attracted to who is often at the ranger station where they have developed a friendly relationship. He is present when Sari comes looking for her daughter and seeks help in the forest to find Dee Dee and Henry.
Kristofer Hivju as Olaf
Meanwhile, in the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest, an American black bear eats some of the cocaine. Becoming highly aggressive, it attacks hikers, Elsa and Olaf.
Hannah Hoekstra as Elsa
Elsa is along with Olaf as they are hiking in the forest when the American black bear comes along raging from eating a brick of cocaine and attacks Olaf and Elsa.
Ayoola Smart as Officer Reba
Officer Reba works with Bob and was present when the detective made the connection to Andrew Thorton II and St. Louis drug kingpin Syd White. Who she is working for and what her motives are, aren’t clear, since she arrives in the forest the same time as Syd White.
Aaron Holliday as Stache
After Daveed beats them, one of the gang members, Stache, agrees to take Daveed and Eddie to recover some of the cocaine he stashed in a gazebo.
J.B. Moore as Vest
Vest is with the Duchamps gang, three delinquents who cause trouble in the forest, until a rage filled coked out bear decides ro cause some trouble of his own with the Duchamps gang.
Scott Seiss as Tom
Tom is a paramedic that shows up to see about park ranger Liz and her injuries from the bear attacking, but had no idea what he was walking into in the ranger station and soon met the cocaine bear.
Matthew Rhys as Andrew Thornton
At the end, we come to the beginning, where it all starts. Andrew Thornton II throws a bag of cocaine out of his plane due to being over weight, then tries to jump out, but his parachute fails and he falls to his death in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Allan Henry as Bear Performer
Allan Henry, a stunt performer and actor, played the role of the bear and is credited as “Bear Performer”. He used custom-made, meter-long aluminum limb extensions to portray the bear’s movements. While playing the bear, Henry did not have tracking markers on his face for animators to turn into digital muscle movements but provided a crucial reference point for the animators to create the bear’s physicality and emotional state.
The film is loosely inspired by the events surrounding a 175-pound (79 kg) American black bear that died after ingesting a duffel bag full of cocaine in December 1985. The cocaine had been dropped out of an airplane piloted by Andrew C. Thornton II, a former narcotics officer and convicted drug smuggler, because his plane was carrying too heavy a load. Thornton then jumped out of the plane with a faulty parachute and died. The bear, who died sometime after consuming the cocaine, was found three months later in northern Georgia alongside 40 opened plastic containers of cocaine. The bear is currently on display at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky, which named the creature “Cocaine Bear” in 2015.
Creative liberties
The film’s plot differs from real-life events in a number of ways. Notably, the real-life Cocaine Bear is not known to have killed anyone after consuming drugs, and what transpired in the time leading up to its death from overdose is unknown. In an interview with Variety‘s Adam B. Vary, Banks stated that “this movie could be seen as that bear’s revenge story.”
Cocaine Bear grossed $64.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $25.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $90 million.
Cocaine Bear is available now to rent on Amazon Prime Video…