Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron Clashed Over Terminator’s ‘I’ll Be Back’ Line

Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron clashed over Terminator’s “I’ll be back” line because they couldn’t initially agree on the exact wording of the character’s now-iconic catchphrase.

The newly-released Netflix docuseries Arnold dives into Schwarzenegger’s multifaceted life and career, with the second installment of the three-part series focusing on how he transitioned from being a bodybuilder to becoming an actor.

According to Insider, Schwarzenegger recalled that it wasn’t all smooth sailing, and he found himself in a heated exchange with Cameron while shooting The Terminator as Schwarzenegger wasn’t sold on the “I’ll be back” line, even though he had already slightly tweaked it.

“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,” Cameron said. “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 explained that he wanted to change the line to “I will be back” to sound more “machine-like,” but Cameron rebuffed the idea of ditching the contraction and put a stop to the back-and-forth between them so they could move forward with the shoot.

“‘Are you the writer?'” Schwarzenegger remembered Cameron asking him during their disagreement. “And I said, ‘No,’ and he said, ‘Well, don’t tell me how to f***ing write.'”

On reflection, of course, Schwarzenegger admits that Cameron was “absolutely right” to stick to his guns. “It became the most quoted movie line, I think, in the history of motion pictures,” he commented. “So this just shows to you who was right and who was wrong.”

The Terminator, released in 1984, is the first film in the legendary franchise and it introduced the world to Schwarzenegger’s iconic human-disguised cybernetic android known as Cyberdyne Systems Model 101, T-800, or simply The Terminator.

Since then, the franchise has grown into six films, a TV series, web shows, video games, comics, and so much more. And while the future of the Terminator film franchise is unclear, it’s safe to say that there’s never a bad time to watch or rewatch these legendary sci-fi movies.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.