Arnold Schwarzenegger Argued With James Cameron Over The Terminator’s Most Iconic Line

A new documentary series on Netflix is taking a deep dive into the life of actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and of course a big chunk of the doc focuses on his career in front of the camera. Schwarzenegger is an icon in the world of action movies, having starred in films like Predator, True Lies, and The Terminator. The latter film was addressed in detail in Arnold, with both Schwarzenegger and director/co-writer James Cameron revealing they fought over one of The Terminator‘s biggest moments.

Schwarzenegger’s delivery of “I’ll be back” has been repeated by millions and millions of movie fans over the years, but the actor originally didn’t want to say it. During the Arnold documentary series, Cameron explained that he and Schwarzenegger were having trouble landing on what line to say, since Schwarzenegger didn’t like what was in the script.

“Sometime in the middle of the shoot, we’re doing this police station scene. The line is, ‘I’ll come back.’ It wasn’t meant to be like a big moment at all,” said Cameron. “It was literally meant to be, on its face, ‘No problem, I’ll come back.’ For some reason, Arnold didn’t say, ‘I’ll come back.’ I said, ‘Well, just say I’ll be back. Keep it simple.’”

Schwarzenegger then explained that he felt something like “I’ll be back” wouldn’t make sense for his character because he’s a robot. He felt that “I will be back” would be more robotic and closer to what the character would say. 

“And he says, ‘Are you the writer?’” Schwarzenegger said. “And I said, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘Well don’t tell me how to f—ing write.’”

Of course, as well all know, Cameron ended up winning the argument. Schwarzenegger’s “I’ll be back” went on to not only be the most memorable lines in the movie, but one of the most beloved movie quotes in film history. Fortunately for all of us, the duo landed on the right line for the right moment.

All three episodes of Arnold are now streaming on Netflix.