The Terminator‘s success spawned a series of games, graphic novels, TV shows, and six films to date. One line in the first film unintentionally became the franchise’s catchphrase.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s deadpan delivery brought out the irony of The Terminator‘s script. In an interview with Empire, director James Cameron said the actor’s tone created a droll character audiences could identify with. “Nothing was tailored for Arnold,” he asserted. “We didn’t change a word of the script for Arnold. It’s just the entire tone inflected in that moment. It didn’t lose its seriousness, it wasn’t really played for humor, but there was some irony that emerged.” This is best demonstrated in the iconic line that defined Schwarzenegger’s career. Cameron admitted he thought nothing of the phrase “I’ll be back” when he wrote it in the script, however.
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“I think when I wrote it, I didn’t even think that it would play that well. I just thought it was a throwaway,” he recalled. That scene was well-received in theaters, but in a way he didn’t expect. “When he says, ‘I’ll be back’, an audience who had never seen the film before laughed,” he said. “Now, why are they laughing? Because the film has already, up to that moment, promised you that there’s an irony to that line. ‘Yeah, he’s gonna come back and you’re gonna fucking regret it.’ So, to me, that’s a film that’s really working. Nobody was more shocked than myself that people laughed at that line.”
‘I’ll Be Back’ Is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Iconic Catchphrase
“I’ll be back” (and its variations) became Schwarzenegger’s catchphrase in all the Terminator movies. Christian Bale and Linda Hamilton also borrowed the line in Terminator Salvation and Dark Fate, respectively. The phrase even took on a life of its own outside the franchise; Schwarzenegger used it in many of his other movies including Twins, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, Eraser, and The Expendables 2. The actor also weaved the phrase into his public speeches while serving as California governor. Schwarzenegger admitted he was initially against saying the line in The Terminator, however. He even had a heated argument with Cameron about it.
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“It got to the point [that Cameron yelled at me],” he told The Howard Stern Show in 2019. “I very casually said ‘Jim, I would just rather say “I will be back” and I thought it would go right by and he would say ‘Yeah, yeah, say whatever you want.’ And then he says ‘Nah, I like to be “I’ll be back”. [I said] a machine wouldn’t abbreviate “I’ll” and it sounds very weird when I say “I’ll”, it sounds weak. Why don’t we say “I will be back”?” Schwarzenneger insisted on the request a few more times before the director shut it down: “What does the goddamn script say?!” Schwarzenegger recalled Cameron’s retort. “Say the f—ing line okay? I don’t correct your acting, so don’t correct my f—ing writing. What’s the matter with you Arnold?
Cameron said any spat he had with Schwarzenegger in The Terminator was ironed out eventually. “He and I are still besties, and I like to wind him up a little bit, and he likes to wind me up,” he said. “But he was great, and he came with a will to make it everything that it could be.” Terminator: Dark Fate is their last collaboration project.
Cameron recently confirmed plans for a new Terminator film with new story arcs and characters.
Source: Empire
The Terminator
A human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity’s future salvation.
- Director
- James Cameron
- Release Date
- October 26, 1984
- Writers
- James Cameron , Gale Anne Hurd , William Wisher
- Runtime
- 1 hour 47 minutes
- Main Genre
- Action
- Production Company
- Cinema ’84, Euro Film Funding, Hemdale, Pacific Western Productions
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