Despite its fragmented/choppy editing (and maybe the overdone shuffling shoe noises), the final countdown scene in Goldfinger (1964) is great. The anxiety buildup as the clock winds down is palpable, and every time I watch I’m invested in Connery’s fate.

It was refreshing to see Bond at his most vulnerable, about to die and desperate, recover at the hands of some scientist-type who knew the simple way to defuse the bomb. And in typical Bond fashion, the saga ends with a hat-tip of the countdown timer as “007” and an obviously tense Bond calmly delivering a witty one-liner at such a pivotal moment: “What kept you?”