Ranger Liz was a supporting character in the 2023 horror-comedy film Cocaine Bear. She was a Park Ranger for the Blood Mountain trail of Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest, Georgia.
History[]
After finding out that her daughter Dee Dee and her best friend Henry have skipped school to go paint a waterfall on Blood Mountain, Sari McKinndry asks Ranger Liz and nature enthusiast Peter to help find them. The three set off on the trail and soon find Henry, who has climbed high up a tree and warns the adults that there is a bear nearby that had attacked him and Dee Dee. At first, the adults don't believe him since bears are supposed to be peaceful creatures, but Henry claims that there was something very wrong with the bear that he saw.
Henry's claims are quickly proven true when the bear appears, grabbing Peter and dragging him through the bushes. Liz draws her revolver, ready to shoot the bear should it appear again, but the creature ambushes her from behind, raking her thigh with its claws. Terrified and wounded, Liz hobbles away, telling Sari that she will be back with help.
After making it back to the ranger station, Liz finds the office being robbed by the Duchamps gang. She attempts to arrest them, but their attention turns towards a thudding at the door. Liz expects it is the bear, though she never explicitly says as much. Ponytail and Vest, meanwhile, think that the fixer Daveed has come back. After readying her gun, Liz tells Ponytail to open the door. Ponytail does so and is surprised to see a black bear sitting on the porch. Having psyched herself up for this situation, Liz reacts by pulling the trigger on her gun, accidentally blasting a hole through Ponytail's head while failing to hit the bear, which bolts after being shot at. It isn't long before the bear comes back, however, breaking into the station, wounding Liz further and killing Vest.
After the bear goes into the supply closet to feed on Vest's remains, a concussed Liz calls for an ambulance to come to the ranger station, leaving out the details of the dead Duchamps boys. After arriving at the station, paramedics Tom and Beth struggle to open the door. When they manage to open it, they see that it had been blocked by Ponytail's corpse. While Beth tends to Liz, Tom investigates the supply closet. As Beth examines her, Liz attempts to warn the paramedics of the bear inside the closet, unable to get the words out due to the pain she's in. The moment she utters the word "bear", Tom suddenly comes tumbling out of the supply closet. The bear breaks down the closet door, pinning Tom beneath it as Beth and Liz scream in terror. Beth drags Liz out to the ambulance, putting her in the back before getting into the cab and attempting to drive away. Tom soon follows after them after distracting the bear with his EMT bag, jumping into the back of the ambulance as it drives away.
Death[]
The Cocaine Bear emerges from the ranger shack and runs after the ambulance. From the gurney, Liz sits up and raises her gun while Tom moves out of her line of fire. Liz fires through the open ambulance door, using up her ammunition and completely failing to hit the bear. The bear then takes a great leap and lands in the back of the ambulance, reaching for Tom and pulling on the gurney in the process, causing it to slide out through the door. The gurney overturns upon hitting the road, causing Liz to fall face down. She dies after her face is dragged across the road for several seconds.