Summary

• Real Cocaine Bear didn't kill anyone, unlike in the movie, which amps up the action and horror for a wild ride.
• Cocaine Bear's story takes major liberties for an R-rated comedy thriller based on real events, entertaining yet ridiculous.
• The real animal died of overdose from consuming cocaine, but the movie transforms it into a killing machine for dramatic effect.

The titular bear kills several people in the Cocaine Bear movie, and while the film is amazingly based on a true story, the real Cocaine Bear didn't kill anyone. The hit 2023 release directed by Elizabeth Banks is based on real events — in 1985, black bear (since dubbed "Pablo Eskobear") ingested an entire brick of cocaine. Cocaine Bear's story follows different groups of people who come into contact with the drug-filled apex predator. This leads to the Cocaine Bear killing spree, and most of the movie is filled with gruesome deaths that range from terrifying to outright hilarious

Cocaine Bear takes a few liberties with the true story to give audiences an R-rated action horror comedy. Most of the action and horror come from the film's main characters encountering the titular Cocaine Bear as it continues to consume drugs that belong to a smuggler. The movie is ultimately one of the most entertaining but ridiculous adventures based on real-life events. However, while the movie is upfront about the fact that it's based on a true story, there is a major difference with the adaptation when it comes to the Cocaine Bear true story deaths.

Cocaine Bear is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

No, Cocaine Bear Didn't Kill Anyone In Real Life

The Real Cocaine Bear Never Went On A Rampage

The choice is an understandable change, as the real events don't exactly give way to such an exciting adventure, though the idea of a deadly bear consuming cocaine is the perfect movie setup.

As deadly as the high, wild animal is depicted in the movie, the real Cocaine Bear did not kill anyone. Cocaine Bear takes the real-life animal — affectionately named Pablo Eskobear — and uses the ridiculous premise to turn it into a killing machine. Elizabeth Banks' movie wastes little time establishing the threat that Cocaine Bear poses to humans. The animal immediately kills one hiker as part of the film's opening, but Cocaine Bear goes on to kill almost a dozen people overall in the movie.

This marks one of the biggest differences between the Cocaine Bear movie and the true story. The choice is an understandable change, as the real events don't exactly give way to such an exciting adventure, though the idea of a deadly bear consuming cocaine is the perfect movie setup. Having Cocaine Bear kill people in the movie helped turn the story into a hybrid of genres with a great premise that could intrigue audiences. This does mean depicting black bears in an overly aggressive nature, but the movie repeatedly jokes that Cocaine Bear's behavior is abnormal.

What Really Happened To Cocaine Bear After Taking The Drugs

Tragically, Pablo Eskobear Overdosed In Real Life

Those looking to see the real bear that Cocaine Bear's true story is based on can find it in Kentucky For Kentucky Fun Mall.

The true story of Cocaine Bear reveals a very different fate for the animal than what the movie shows. In real life, no human beings are known to have encountered the drug-filled bear. All that is known about what happened to Cocaine Bear after taking the drugs is that the creature died. The animal was reported to have died due to an overdose after finding 40 plastic containers with traces of the drug. So, instead of the cocaine turning the bear into a killing machine, the amount of the drugs in its system led to an overdose death.

Cocaine Bear's death is not necessarily the end of its story. The bear was then stuffed by taxidermists to be immortalized forever at the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. However, Cocaine Bear was then lost, found at a pawn shop, and eventually bought by singer Waylon Jennings. Those looking to see the real bear that Cocaine Bear's true story is based on can find it in Kentucky For Kentucky Fun Mall.

Cocaine Bear Isn't The Only Absurd True Story To Become A Movie

Hollywood Has A History Of Taking Bizarre True Events And Exaggerating The Details

Cocaine Bear joins a unique group of wild movies based on true stories that no viewer would ever believe are true. The Steven Spielberg-directed The Terminal, which sees a man living in an airport because he doesn't have the right documents to enter the country but can't be sent back home, is based on a true story too. However, just like Cocaine Bear, a lot of The Terminal's events are greatly exaggerated. 2008's 21 is also surprisingly based on the true story of MIT students forming a blackjack team, and learning how to count cards and beat the casinos.

The goofy Adam Sandler comedy 50 First Dates, which sees a Hawaiian resident (Sandler) attempting to court a woman with short-term memory loss, is rooted in real-life events (via Cosmopolitan). However, the true story doesn't sound like a comedy, as the real-life couple were already married when the wife suffered a head injury, and the husband had to remind her of her life every day with photos and videos.

Most interestingly, a sequel to Cocaine Bear is possible, as there's a demand for Cocaine Shark, which would be based on the true story of three tons of cocaine being found in the ocean, further adding to absurd tales moving to film.