Goldfinger

Essential, and the single most imitated film in the series. Everything people mean by a Bond film is codified here: a pre-title sequence with nothing to do with the plot, a title song belted over graphics, a gadget car demonstrated in act one and used in act three, a mute henchman with a signature weapon, a villain who explains his plan, and a woman killed decoratively.

The joke most viewers miss is how little Bond achieves. He is captured early, spends a large share of the film as a prisoner being shown around, fails to prevent the raid, and the plot is ultimately foiled because a pilot changes sides and because of a decision taken by people he never meets. He is a tourist with opinions, and the film is so confident that nobody notices.

Gert Fröbe's Goldfinger is the template villain and Harold Sakata's Oddjob the template heavy, and the laser scene is the best two minutes in the series: a man strapped to a table, a beam advancing, and an exchange of dialogue that has been quoted for sixty years. The Aston Martin made the gadget car a permanent fixture.

It was made for roughly three million dollars and earned back its budget faster than anything before it, which is why there are twenty-one more. Watch it third, and notice how much of the next fifty years is already present.