Is Cocaine Bear really based on a true story?
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Short filmTranscript
00:00A black bear ingesting cocaine that was dropped out of a plane sounds like something only
00:04Hollywood could think of, but we need to talk about the true story that inspired a new film.
00:08In September of 1985, convicted drug smuggler Andrew Thornton was discovered dead in Knoxville,
00:13Tennessee after jumping out of a plane while carrying 77 pounds of cocaine.
00:18Investigators then went on a hunt for any cocaine that may have been dropped before the crash.
00:22Three months later, in a Georgia forest just south of where Thornton was discovered,
00:25they found a 175-pound black bear dead alongside duffel bags and 40 open plastic containers with
00:31traces of cocaine. An autopsy later confirmed that the bear had overdosed after absorbing at
00:36least 3 grams of cocaine into its bloodstream. The movie Cocaine Bear, which is out in theaters
00:41now, goes a step further, imagining a fictional killing spree the bear could have gone on after
00:46its binge. The real conclusion to the Cocaine Bear saga ends at the Kentucky Fun Mall,
00:50where an alleged taxidermy of the original bear is on display, with a sign reading Pablo Escobar.