Cigarettes & Coffee is a 1993 short film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Philip Baker Hall. It tells the story of five people connected through a $20 bill. Anderson later used it as a basis for his directorial debut film Hard Eight. Plot At a diner, a man (Kirk Baltz) talks to an older man (Philip Baker Hall) over cigarettes and coffee. He explains how, while gambling at a casino, he wrote his name on a $20 bill for good luck. Before he could use it, he ran into his friend Steve and loaned him the bill. He headed back to the hotel room where he was supposed to meet Steve, Steve's wife, and his wife, but his wife told him that Steve and Steve's wife would come later. He saw the bill with his name on it on the floor and became paranoid. He took the bill and won almost $8,000 gambling with it. At another table, a husband is angry that his wife lost all their money gambling on craps. He recounts his marriage proposal and lights his last cigarette. Outside, another man, Bill (Miguel Ferrer), finishes a phone call. He enters the diner and orders coffee and cigarettes, which he pays for with a $20 bill. The younger man confesses that he has paid to have Steve and his wife killed. As the waitress gives them their change, the older man notices the name Douglas Walker written on a $20 bill. He drops it on the floor. Bill returns to his car and opens the trunk; Steve is inside. The couple leave, and the woman takes the bill. The older man tells the younger man that drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette will make everything right. Outside, the couple kiss. Bill drives down a desert road. Cast Kirk Baltz Philip Baker Hall Scott Coffey Miguel Ferrer Kim Gillingham M.K. Harris Jennifer Kaplan Bonnie Fidelman Production While working as a production assistant, Anderson met Philip Baker Hall and informed him about a short script he had written for him. Hall read the script and was impressed. The film was made for $20,000 financed with money Anderson won gambling, his girlfriend's credit card, $10,000 his father, Ernie Anderson, had set aside for college, and various other donations. Anderson’s friend Shane Conrad had connections at Panavision and borrowed a Panavision camera for a weekend (which would