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Cocaine Bear's Story Secretly Has A Much Deeper Meaning (Yes, Really!)
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Cocaine Bear.
Cocaine Bear might be an outrageous bloodbath, but the horror comedy also has a deeper meaning. It follows a 500-pound black bear after ingesting some cocaine that falls from a smuggler's passing plane, littering the national park with millions of dollars worth of drugs. After it has its first taste it can't get enough, and when two school children skip class to wander into the park on the same day, they come face to face with the raging animal. At the same time that two men, Eddie and Daveed, and an investigator, also make their way into the woods for the cocaine, Sari (Keri Russell) tries to find her daughter.
As the bear consumes more cocaine, more hikers and innocent bystanders get mauled, until Cocaine Bear's kill count gets impressively high. One final confrontation between the bear and Syd White (Ray Liotta), the drug dealer hoping to recoup his losses, occurs near the bear's cave. With all the remaining human survivors gathered together along with the bear and her two cubs, lines get drawn in the sand and motivations become clear. With children, greed, and violence involved, a few strong themes in Cocaine Bear emerge.
Cocaine Bear's Themes Of Family & Parenthood Connect Each Storyline
Family ties and parenthood are two themes that connect the two main Cocaine Bear storylines. Sari is a single parent mom just trying to make sure her daughter gets to school, eats her lunch, and doesn't become like the Duchamps teens wandering the forest and trying to rob unsuspecting hikers. She even feels protective over Henry, her daughter's friend who thinks nothing of skipping school or hanging out with a ne'er-do-well like Falk.
Eddie, another main character in Cocaine Bear, is a single father whose wife has recently died, causing him to leave his young son in the company of Syd, his father, and also an infamous drug boss. His wife's death has clearly affected him deeply, and he doesn't want to be a part of his father's world anymore but doesn't know any other way to escape it except to leave without telling his father where he is. The prospect of one last payday and finally being able to give his young son a better life motivates him to go into the national park despite the danger of Cocaine Bear.
Both Sari and Eddie go into the national park on behalf of their children, never expecting to find a rampaging bear high on cocaine. When the bear encounters Dee Dee and Henry, Henry mistakenly thinks it's going to kill them, but later, after finding Dee Dee has been brought safe and sound to its cave, realizes there's a reason Cocaine Bear let Dee Dee live. It doesn't harm Henry again, and it also doesn't harm Eddie, but rather, shows some degree of affection, indicating it might even be able to sense his more altruistic motivations.
Cocaine Bear's Real Meaning Explains Why Syd Had To Die
By the time Syd reunites with Eddie in the forest, it's very clear that he's not a family man, and the meaning behind Cocaine Bear dictates that he needs to meet a grisly end. He's been a poor parent to his son, and he's left his grandson back in St. Louis without care. Eddie by contrast was just trying to find a way to improve his son's life after his wife died, albeit in a roundabout way. When Eddie realizes that Syd will stop at nothing to obtain the remaining cocaine, even when children stand to get hurt, he stands up to his father to protect them.
When Syd shoots her several times Cocaine Bear somehow survives and after another whiff of cocaine, it overrides any pain she might be feeling, allowing her to jump into action to defend her cubs. When they collectively maul him, it's symbolic punishment. He's put the value of drugs and a payday higher than the lives of not only her children but his own son and grandson. His death is a wake-up call for Eddie, who by this point doesn't want to lead a path that leads to his father's comeuppance. His improved behavior is rewarded by reuniting with his son, but also by getting the investigator's adorable dog, Rosetta.
Cocaine Bear's Family Themes Reveal 1 Major Reason For The Bear's Rampage
The bond of family can inspire a strong survival instinct, and the themes of parenthood that run through Cocaine Bear also give a clue why the bear has been attacking humans the entire movie. Yes, the cocaine might have made it more aggressive, but at a certain point, she's protecting her cubs from the thoughtless destruction of humans' illegal activities and careless violence. By the ending of Cocaine Bear, there's no doubt that Syd would have shot her cubs in order to get the cocaine back, so the bear's violence can be attributed to wanting to make sure a park visitor like Syd never found her most valuable possessions.
In a whacky movie like Cocaine Bear the gory deaths and hilarious one-liners can often take center stage, but by the third act, there's a surprising amount of heart. The bear never asked to become addicted to cocaine, and despite human negligence and folly, the bear and her cubs survive to frolic in the woods, and Sari, Eddie, Daveed, and the children make it out (mostly) unscathed from her attack. Having a deeper meaning to Cocaine Bear gives it something substantially emotional to make its more incredulous elements even better.
