Everything Cocaine Bear Doesn't Tell You About The True Story

"Cocaine Bear" is a hilarious and horrific killer bear thrill ride inspired by true events — but just how close does it stick to those events? Did Pablo Escobear really maul a bunch of innocent (and not-so-innocent) hikers? Did kids really discover the bear's stash and sample the product? Did the drug dealer who fell from the sky along with millions of dollars of cocaine really have that great of a mustache?

Director Elizabeth Banks and screenwriter Jimmy Warden take a bit of creative license with everybody's favorite sky-high mama bear. Meaning, there's only about a gram of reality to the movie "Cocaine Bear," compared to its mountain of high-octane emotional truth. Yes, a drug dealer did parachute out of the plane and die. No, the bear didn't kill anybody. Still, the real cocaine bear's story — and the story behind the making of the movie — has to be seen to be believed.

Though he only gets a brief cameo, the doomed drug dealer who bites the big one in the film's first five minutes is based on Andrew Thornton, and he's an even wilder real-life character than the bear. Beware of spoilers and read on to learn more about this cocaine cowboy of the sky — plus everything "Cocaine Bear" doesn't tell you about the true story.

The real Andrew Thornton was packing more than 70 pounds of cocaine on his person when he died, which was valued at well over $10 million. Even if you're not the betting type, you can probably guess that he wasn't just holding all that for a friend. Despite (or perhaps because of) this "Cocaine Bear" kickstarter's origins as a narcotics officer, Thornton became a kingpin of Kentucky drug running. Together with fellow officer Bradley Bryant, Thornton created a security firm that fronted his drug and weapons-smuggling business.

This syndicate, known as The Company, was a Kentucky outfit with friends in extremely high places — namely the Chagra brothers. When one of the brothers, Jimmy Chagra, was facing a life sentence for drug smuggling in the '70s, he later stood trial for hiring Charles Harrelson (Woody Harrelson's father) to take out the federal judge overseeing the case. Investigator Sally Denton also posits in her book "The Bluegrass Conspiracy" that The Company was involved in a mutually beneficial relationship with CIA operatives who supported the Iran-Contra affair.

Bryant and Thornton often invoked CIA connections over the years, possibly to escape harsh punishments when caught red-handed for theft or smuggling. While no conclusive link was ever proven, Denton points out that both Thornton and Bryant kept CIA contacts in their private address books in case of emergency and that both had a CIA phone number written in their address books.

Before Andrew Thornton de facto killed the "Cocaine Bear," he was suspected of what investigator and author Sally Denton described in the Chicago Tribune as "vendetta deaths." Thornton had a reputation for paranoia, doomsday prepping, and a soldier of fortune attitude, which might have culminated in a low-key murderous rampage that would make even Cokey the Bear raise an eyebrow.

In her book "The Bluegrass Conspiracy," Denton details how Thornton attempted to evade arrest for marijuana smuggling first by becoming a fugitive, then by staging a gunshot attack against himself while wearing a bulletproof vest. Authorities saw through Thornton's ruse and convicted him on marijuana conspiracy charges. While police might have hoped for the proverbial buck to stop there, Thornton possibly took that buck and turned it into buckshot.

According to Denton, years after Thornton's conviction, several attorneys and witnesses who had worked against Thornton's interests turned up violently dead. One such "victim" was former Kentucky DEA head honcho Harold Wade Brown, a close friend and drug-smuggling colleague of Thornton's who could have spilled the beans on a secret drug lab the pair worked out of. Brown's death was initially ruled a suicide. Gunshots, slit throats, and strangulation — all in a day's work for a man who didn't think twice about killing an innocent bear with cocaine.

Behind every "Cocaine Bear" is a cocaine man, and behind every cocaine man is a karate instructor slash bodyguard. Bill Leonard was Andrew Thornton's co-pilot on the fateful cocaine bear flight, but he lived to tell the tale — and to deny many others.

Leonard is charged with being Thornton's co-conspirator in all smuggling pursuits by Sally Denton in her book "The Bluegrass Conspiracy," but Leonard has a story and he's sticking to it: Thornton tricked him into drug smuggling. Also, he ate a parrot in Montería and got food poisoning. While eating tropical birds may not be the rock-solid defense Leonard thinks it is, he also claimed in a 1990 Knoxville News Sentinel interview that Thornton surprised him with the Colombian smuggling plan on what Leonard thought was a quick Bahamas pleasure trip.

Leonard claims that both he and Thornton suspected they were being pursued by federal agents, which prompted their plans of escape. Leonard started ditching bricks of cocaine, infuriating Thornton — until the two looked at each other and busted up laughing. While Leonard made it out of the plane intact, Thornton made it into "Cocaine Bear."

The real-life and movie magic "Cocaine Bear" goes by many names — Cocaine Bear, Pablo Escobear, and Cokey the Bear. However, while the movie bear always needs more cowbell in the form of blood and cocaine, the real-life cocaine bear was the true horror movie victim.

Cokey did pull a "Scarface" on all the snow in Chattahoochee, but she didn't eat any hikers. In fact, she didn't so much as nibble a single powdered nose before her bad trip took its fatal toll. In addition to being the star of her own horror-comedy, Cokey also got her own de facto obit in The New York Times. Kentucky for Kentucky, the gift shop that now houses the taxidermied Cocaine Bear, reached out to the bear's initial medical examiner at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

"Its stomach was literally packed to the brim with cocaine," the examiner told KY for KY. "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." While the bear looked intact from the outside, all of its internal organs had exploded. While the lack of internal organs must make taxidermy a snap, make sure to pour a little honey out for the real Cocaine Bear's gruesome fate. How shocking that Cokey wasn't the face of "D.A.R.E." in the '90s — how effective would "B.E.A.R." be for kids to learn when it comes to drugs, just say no?

While the real "Cocaine Bear" was found where the movie is set, in the Georgia mountains, the movie was filmed in another land famous for its horrifying and beautiful forests: Ireland. The Emerald Isle was also a primary shooting location for "Game of Thrones," which starred Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane — seen here as a hiker who loses his girlfriend to the bear at the beginning of the movie.

Principal photography for "Cocaine Bear" took place in Powercourt, Barnislagan Woods, Avoca, and the Wicklow Mountains. Oddly enough, this area is sometimes referred to as Ireland's "vanishing triangle," as victims of Dublin crimes are known to be dumped in the mountains. Still, it's not all mythical forests and hideous murder in Ireland — there are also genealogical discoveries, like the one Ray Liotta made while filming.

Director Elizabeth Banks told Esquire that Liotta took a big liking to Ireland, and during his blood-covered wrap speech the adopted Liotta told the cast and crew, "I recently found out that I am actually mostly Irish. So this trip has been so special to me because I didn't understand the connection that I actually had to this place and to the Irish people. And everybody's been so nice."

Most of "Cocaine Bear'" $35 million budget paid for the rendering of the actual cocaine bear via Weta FX, the visual effects company founded by Peter Jackson. While CGI Cokey is pulse-poundingly real thanks to the tireless and inventive efforts of the visual effects team, one particular member was key to her creation: the man behind the bear, Allan Henry.

Henry is a motion capture actor and stuntman who has worked extensively in the "Planet of the Apes" franchise, "Avengers: Endgame," and "Jungle Book." The face behind the cocaine bear was often covered in mo-cap dots and a helmet with an extended snout to represent the giant size of Ms. Escobear's head, while Henry's body was outfitted with a rig that could help him move more like a bear. Henry also wore special "hand stilts" that allowed him to "go on quadruped," aka running on all fours as part-man, part-beast. That's actually Henry physically running after the ambulance, wearing a coat of expertly-rendered visual effects.

Henry tells IndieWire, "It's a hell of a core workout, that's for sure," Henry said. "The whole extension was about a meter long, but where my hand was about half a meter down, they were about 500 or 600 millimeters up. But what that means is that I can essentially be on all fours without compromising too much of my own structure, so that I can still breathe, and I still have flexibility and still have movement." Running at full tilt while a hilarious cast screams and cracks jokes down at him sounds like a tough job — but fans of the movie can rejoice that Henry could grin and bear it.