Yes, you read that correctly, Cocaine Bear is indeed based on a true story.
The 2023 comedy about a bear that carries out a rampage in an American forest after being exposed to a massive amount of cocaine is about as ridiculous a concept as you can possibly imagine.
Despite that, it is heavily inspired by a real-life bear known as ‘Pablo Eskobear’.
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The film, just added to Netflix, may take some creative liberties but the core concept it is based on is genuine fact.
Who is Pablo Eskobear?
The bear that inspired the titular Cocaine Bear is commonly known by the Pablo moniker likening him to the Colombian drugs kingpin.
Pablo was a Kentucky black bear, 175-pounds heavy, who happened to come across over 40 kilos of cocaine.
The bear came across this stash and, like the most annoying person in any given nightclub on a Friday night, proceeded to consume the mountain of cocaine all by himself.
Worth £11 million in total, the cocaine was ditched by a pilot smuggling the drugs from Colombia who abandoned the plane and died after his parachute malfunctioned.
Unsurprisingly, Pablo also died shortly after consuming the heaps of drugs.
Where is Pablo now?
The bear is now stuffed and kept in Kentucky, where a chain hangs around his neck warning people not to take drugs or you could end up with a similar fate.
The medical examiner who performed an autopsy on the bear said of it, per The Mirror: “Its stomach was literally packed to the brim with cocaine. There isn’t a mammal on the planet that could survive that.
“Cerebral hemorrhaging, respiratory failure, hyperthermia, renal failure, heart failure, stroke. You name it, that bear had it.”
Did it inspire Cocaine Bear?
Cocaine Bear takes an already insane true story and turns it up to eleven.
Firstly, Pablo Eskobear may be a coke-fiend, but he was not a murderer, something which the film takes creative liberties with.
In the movie the titular cocaine-eating-bear goes on a rampage that did not take place in real life, killing several people.
Director Elizabeth Bank said of the film in an interview with Variety: “[It is] my twisted fantasy of what I wish actually happened after the bear did all that cocaine.
She went on to say that, when she read more into the story of Pablo, she felt ‘a deep sympathy for the bear’.
She went on to say: “I really felt like this is so f*cked up that this bear got dragged into this drug run gone bad and ends up dead.
“I felt like this movie could be that bear’s revenge story.”
Cocaine Bear is available to stream on Netflix in the UK and Ireland now.
Topics: Drugs, Netflix, Film, TV and Film, True Crime
Michael Slavin