No particular order. Also, it’s movies that I watched, can’t speak on essentials that I might be missing.

It’s kinda hard to make a list on essentials tho. Because your personal taste obviously plays a big role. I can’t see my girlfriend liking more than 10 percent of those…

Schindlers List Gladiator No country for old men The grand Budapest hotel The big Lebowski The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers Star Wars (the original one) Requiem for a dream Pulp fiction The good, the bad, the ugly The lives of others La vita é Bella All quiet on the western front (1930 version) The dark knight The Truman Show 2001: Space odyssey Alien 7 Samurai Princess Mononoke Trainspotting Boyz N the Hood Scarface The Godfather 1,2 The Matrix Clockwork Orange Shutter Island Kingdom of Heaven Wolf of Wall Street

Honorable mentions because they are popular and everybody always talks about them (I like a lot of them, too. Don’t consider them essentials tho):

Inception Interstellar Fight Club Harry Potter Return of the King Rest of Star Wars (whatever people consider the good ones at last) Saving Private Ryan Django Unchained Toy Story The Lion King