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Watch The Wild First Trailer For Cocaine Bear

The very title "Cocaine Bear" promises something way over the top. Yes, it takes a great many liberties with the real-life events in which a black bear actually ate several pounds of cocaine –- the real cocaine bear just overdosed and died rather than went on a drug-fueled rampage –- but Hollywood has never let the truth get in the way of a fantastic story. And with an impressive cast to boot –- Keri Russell ("The Americans"), O'Shea Jackson ("Straight Outta Compton"), esteemed character actress Margo Martindale, and Ray Liotta in his final role –- it's been easy to anticipate something consummately entertaining.

Most promotional material has emphasized that the upcoming movie is a thriller, but given the absolute absurdity of the premise, and director Elizabeth Banks' well-established comedy chops, there was plenty of reason to believe the movie was going to lean in a darkly humorous direction. Well, the first trailer dropped today, and from the looks of it, Banks and company are planning to confirm those suspicions.

Cocaine Bear brings demented action and comedy

After watching two unlucky EMTs discover the titular antagonist in a broom closet, the basic series of events are set up for us. Like the events of 1985 –- and judging from the fashion, this story may also take place in the 1980s –- a massive supply of illegal cocaine drops into the woods near Knoxville, Tennessee, where some of it is soon ingested by a nearby black bear.

And, as it turns out, the bear enjoys it, much to the horror of a few bystanders, at least two of whom seem to be low-level drug runners employed by Ray Liotta's character. "A bear did cocaine," exclaims one of them. And as the rest of the trailer signals, this movie aims to milk that premise for everything it's worth. Accompanied by Melle Mel's "White Lines," we watch as this bear gets all touchy-feely in its buzz, tossing hikers and park rangers around like rag dolls and tearing at least one of them limb from limb. The trailer concludes with a scene of the bear taking a flying leap into the back of a speeding ambulance while Margo Martindale attempts to take it down with her revolver.

There's a fair amount of swearing, a bit of gore, and plenty of deadly mistakes made by characters that we see coming a mile away as we laugh heartily. And we might see the bear actually talk at one point. It's all patently outlandish. It also looks like a lot of fun. "Cocaine Bear" hits theaters on February 24.