Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Cocaine Bear.
The Big Picture
- Cocaine Bear is based on a true story about a black bear that ingested cocaine in the 1980s and died, leading to its stuffed memorialization.
- The film follows a group of characters, including police investigator Bob, who are all connected by their search for the lost cocaine in the Blood Mountains of Georgia.
- The ending sees Eddie standing up to his father, Syd, and saving his friend Daveed. Sari takes the children to safety, and the fate of the bear and the lost cocaine remains unclear.
There may not be a more aptly named title of a film this year than Cocaine Bear. It’s a film that’s about as straightforward as its title would suggest, as it is in fact about a wild black bear in the 1980s that manages to ingest cocaine and develop a serious addiction. In her most ambitious project yet as a filmmaker, Elizabeth Banks delivers a wacky sendup of slasher movies, crime movies, and 1980s comedies. The highly popular viral marketing campaign has already managed to gain the film a cult following ahead of its release.
Set in 1985, Cocaine Bear follows the police investigator Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) as he searches for a lost shipment of cocaine that was lost in the Blood Mountains of Georgia as he tries to catch the elusive criminal Syd Dentwood (Ray Liotta). Desperate to retrieve his lost packages, Syd dispatches his son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) and accomplice Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) to find the missing drugs. Unfortunately, the nurse Sari (Keri Russell) loses her daughter Dee Dee (Brooklyn Prince) in the woods when she and her friend Henry (Christian Convery) go exploring.
Between the quirky Park Ranger Liz (Margot Martindale) and the animal rights activist Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), the tourists Olaf (Kristofer Hivju) and his wife (Hannah Hoekstra), Bob’s fellow cop Officer Reba (Ayoola Smart), a pair of medics (Scott Seiss and Kahyun Kim), and the local ruffian Stache (Aaron Holiday), even more crazy characters get involved in the ludicrous. Here’s everything you need to know about the ending of Cocaine Bear.
Is ‘Cocaine Bear’ based on a real story?
Believe it or not, Cocaine Bear is actually based on a true story. It was reported in December of 1985 that authorities were searching for a stash of cocaine believed to be in the Chattahoochee National Forest near Blue Ridge, Georgia that had been dropped by Pablo Escobar’s crew. The body of a black bear that had ingested a considerable amount of cocaine before its unfortunate death. The bear was later stuffed and memorialized.
How Does the Bear Get the Cocaine?
In the film, cocaine is dumped in the mountain to be picked up by Escobar’s crew by an energetic smuggler (Matthew Rhys) who flies over Georgia. The not-so-bright smuggler bangs his head before jumping out and fails to activate his parachute; he falls to his death in the middle of a small suburban Georgia community. This draws Bob and the other officers into the case.
Why Do the Other Characters Go to Blood Mountain?
Sari goes looking for her daughter Dee Dee, who has skipped school with Henry to go paint a nearby waterfall, and Sari decides to join a scouting mission with Liz and Peter. Sayeed is attacked by Stache and his thugs, and forces Stache to travel with him and Eddie to point out where the rest of the cocaine is stored. After Eddie and Sayeed begin to fumble their mission to retrieve the shipment, Syd comes out personally to settle the case. Olaf and his wife are simply tourists on vacation in the area. The medics show up after an emergency incident is called. Reba doesn’t make her way to the woods until the third act, where she reveals that she’s actually working with Syd.
Who Dies in ‘Cocaine Bear?’
Cocaine Bear gets graphic very quickly. The opening sequence shows Olaf’s wife being brutally dismembered after she mistakenly tries to flee from the bear. After Dee Dee is kidnapped by the bear and taken to its cubs, Henry is discovered by Sari, Liz, and Peter. Peter is brutally dismembered by the bear, and Sari decides to protect Henry while an injured Liz flees to get help. Liz returns to the check-in center and amidst the chaos kills one of Stache’s accomplices, while another gets decapitated by the bear.
Liz had sent a distress call to the two medics, and they all make an attempt to flee in an ambulance. However, Liz’s stretcher is thrown off the edge of the ambulance, and she’s dragged to her death. The two medics are later attacked and killed by the bear. Bob gets in a standoff with Eddie, Daveed, and Stache, but Syd arrives and kills the older cop, allowing Stache to flee the scene. Olaf leads Sari and Charley to the waterfall, where Dee Dee has been taken in by the bear’s cubs.
What Happens at the End of 'Cocaine Bear'?
While Syd threatens to kill Reba, she leaves after Daveed and Eddie decide to defend her. Eddie finally stands up to his father after noticing that children are in danger. Syd can’t control his lust for money and tries to steal the cocaine, only to be dismembered and killed. While Daveed is nearly killed, Eddie rescues him in the water, and Sari is able to save his life. She takes both Dee Dee and Henry to safety as they walk home.
Eddie now resolves to be a better father, as Syd had been taking care of Eddie’s young son. He accepts that Daveed is his best friend; the pair agrees to take care of Bob’s dog after Reba gives her to them. Sari and Dee Dee resolve their differences and decide to spend more time with each other. The fate of the bear and the lost cocaine is left ambiguous.
Does ‘Cocaine Bear’ Have a Post-Credit Sequence?
There is a brief post-credit moment where Eddie and Daveed arrive to greet Eddie’s son, and realize that the dog has been eating Daveed's fingers that have been shot off by Bob. Another post-credit moment reveals that upon his escape, Stache discovers a duffel bag of cocaine and decides to take it for himself.