Jaws

The film that invented the summer blockbuster, and it happened partly by accident. The mechanical shark barely worked, so Spielberg was forced to suggest it, a fin, a barrel, John Williams's two notes, and the suggestion is scarier than any creature could be. A resort town, a shark, and an official who suppresses the warning for money.

The second half, three men on a boat, is a near-perfect adventure, and Robert Shaw's Indianapolis speech is one of American cinema's great monologues. It is not exploitation, but every killer-animal film here is chasing it.

The one they all copied, and none matched.