Found this documentary on Peacock today as I was looking around for other things to watch and I thought it would be a fun doc. I enjoyed the weird and mostly fictionalized film Cocaine bear from February this year. I did kn0w that it was based on a true story, and, after viewing this documentary, it was even more apparent that there was very little true within that “based on.”

While it was true that the bear had consumed some cocaine from a duffle bag that had been tossed from an airplane, that is where the similarities ended. In real life, the bear had eaten some of the cocaine and overdosed right beside the bag.

What was most interesting about this documentary was the details and story of the man who had thrown this cocaine from the airplane, and he had died after crashing to the ground when he parachuted out of the plane. He was Kentucky blueblood Drew Thornton, a former paratrooper, police officer and drug runner. When he fell to his death, Thornton was armed with a bunch of weapons, including a watch that could have come right off of James Bond, and a bag strapped to himself containing 70 pounds of cocaine, all while wearing a pair of Gucci loafers.

The doc told Thornton’s story about how he went from the high life in Kentucky to running drugs into the United States. There was still a ton of information that was not known about this tale and it only helped create more of an uncertainty of the situation.

This documentary was short and went quickly. The talking heads of the doc were all interesting and seemed knowledgeable. The doc did its best to tie everything to the cocaine bear, even showing the stuffed remains of what is claimed to be the actual cocaine bear.

Who would guess that a film about a rampaging bear high on cocaine would have a background as wild and crazy as the fiction?

3.5 stars