The Terminator: Breaking Down Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Most Iconic Moment

We breakdown the famous “I’ll be back” scene in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most iconic film, The Terminator.

When it comes to iconic 1980’s action cinema, who stands out ahead of the pack? That’s right, Arnold. Arnold Schwarzenegger is known for many of his iconic roles over the years-  but none are more memorable and more homaged than James Cameron’s 1984 science-fiction action classic, The Terminator. Be honest, at some point in your day-to-day life you’ve made some kind of reference to these movies. Maybe you’ve said “Asta la vista, Baby” from T2, maybe you’ve referred to the metaverse as Skynet once or twice, or just maybe you’ve been one of the many of us to exit a room and say “I’ll be back”. In either case, the ladder scene is easily one of the most iconic lines on the entire franchise. During this time in the mid-80’s, James Cameron was yet to become the visionary and notoriously high-standards filmmaker that he is today. Although, there is a story that members of the cast and crew had custom t- shirts made during the production of the film that said “You can’t scare me. I work for James Cameron!”.

Far from the high paid jobs he’s doing today, Cameron was living in his car and with friends at the time he was working on the script for the film. I’m fact, the iconic line of “I’ll be back” was actually written in the screenplay as “I’ll come back” which doesn’t have the same ring to it if you ask me. At one point, Arnold protested the use of the word “I’ll” and wanted to say “I will” stating that using the contraction sounded too ‘feminine’ for a giant scary robot assassin. And this resulted in Cameron shouting at the actor saying “I don’t tell you how to act, so don’t tell me how to write!”.
Of course, there are all sorts of behind the scenes facts and stories to get into in todays episode of Scene Breakdown. Join us and see what went into making one of the most important scenes in movie history.