They were shooting all day until 7:00 in the evening, and then a limousine took Rio to his hotel. There with Samantha were Joaquin and Rain who had come for an audition. A party began in the hotel. They began to drink, smoke marijuana and snort cocaine. It was Saturday night, Halloween Eve, and Rio had planned to meet his friends, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, in a club called the Viper Room, owned by Johnny Depp, where they were going to play an unannounced set.
They all arrived at the Viper Room after midnight. Many were dressed in costumes for Halloween. Rio met them his drug friends, and one of them offered him a taste some high-grade heroin he had,"Try this, it will make you feel fabulous." At 12:45 a.m., the two went into the men's room, so that Rio could take it.
The moment Rio snorted it he started trembling add shaking, "What did you give me? What the fuck is in it?". He began to vomit and then someone helped him, splashing cold water on his face and giving him some Valium. Then Rio went with Samantha, Joaquin and Rain. He began to complain he couldn't breath and suddenly passed out. When he came to, he asked Samantha to take him out.
Samantha and Joaquin helped him to go out to Sunset Boulevard. As soon as they got out, Rio collapsed on the sidewalk. It was at 1:00 a.m. Rio was having seizures. He began to shake uncontrollably. Rain, who had just arrived from inside the club tried to give her brother mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Rio had another seizure. Samantha was walking around very nervous, unable to say anything, and Joaquin went to call 911, while Rio had his third seizure.
It was 1:10 a.m. and Joaquin told 911,"My brother's having seizures. Now, I'm thinking he's had a Valium or something. You must get here, please, because he's dying."
After this Joaquin put his arm around Rio and started to say that he was going to be all right.
The last seizures were fifteen to twenty seconds, but finally after eight minutes of seizures, Rio lay still. Terrified,Joaquin shouted, "Oh my God, he's not breathing!"
By that time, the paramedics arrived, and at 1:14 a.m., River was in cardiac arrest with no signs of a pulse or blood pressure. The paramedics began giving him CPR because they were told he had taken drugs. Rain, Joaquin and Samantha denied any knowledge of Rio taking drugs.
When they arrived at the hospital, Rio's skin was dark blue, but his body was still warm. Doctors battled for forty minutes trying to save him, even inserting a pacemaker to stimulate his heart, but it was too late. At 1:51 a.m., River Phoenix was pronounced dead.