Blow

It was a fateful meeting that would lead to dire consequences for many people. George Jung, doing time for smuggling marijuana, met Carlos Lehder, doing time for smuggling cars across the US/Canadian border.

 Within a few years of their discharge from Danbury Correctional Facility, Jung (played by Johnny Depp in the film) and his cell mate Lehder (who was also serving time for marijuana possession) found a way to do business together.

Carlos had a plan: To flood America with cocaine which would destroy the political and moral structure of the United States. As Carlos liked to say: Cocaine was the atomic bomb, and he was going to drop it on America. He found a willing partner in Jung.

Tempted by extraordinary amounts of money, George met Pablo Escobar and other members of the Medellin Cartel. Along the way he alienated his wife, Mirtha Calderon Jung (Penelope Cruz) and his daughter, Kristina Sunshine Jung (Emma Roberts). He ended up in the Otisville Correctional Facility (in upstate New York) where he is scheduled to remain until 2014 (when he’ll be 72 years old).

In this story behind the film, meet George Jung and Pablo Escobar. Learn about cocaine and how it was used in the early part of the twentieth century. Examine how the drug works in the human body and see why it causes such damaging effects. Watch interviews with the real George Jung and with Johnny Depp (who talks about what it was like to portray George). Discover how Pablo Escobar was caught and what has happened to the drug trade since his death.