Arnold Schwarzenegger says he’s shocked at ‘I’ll be back’ line’s iconic grip

No one thought that a three-worded line, ‘I’ll be back’ would ever gain such a massive cult and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is just as baffled as everyone else.

The Terminator star revealed that he never imagined the line would go on to gain such an iconic status.

In an interview with Tim Ferriss, Schwarzenegger shared, “When I did Terminator, Jim Cameron said if we wouldn’t have had Schwarzenegger, then we couldn’t have done the movie because only he sounded like a machine. It was so believable that he actually played a machine.”

He went on to say, That’s where people bought in when he says, “I’ll be back.” It’s totally different then when I say, “I’ll be back.” Here was the greatest compliment that the very things that the agents and the managers and the studio executives said would be a total obstacle became an asset and my career started taking off.”

The ‘I’ll be back’ line became so iconic that it found itself a place in the American Film Institute list of the 100 Best Movie Quotes, ranking at the 37th position.

In an another interview with ComicBook, Schwarzenegger said, "I’ve learned very quickly with the I’ll be backline. We never thought that this would ever be repeated. No one even thought twice about that line. All of a sudden, when the movie comes out, people come up to me and say, 'Can you say this line? I’ll be back. Oh my God, it’s such a great line.”

The actor added, "So, I don’t know, like when I said I’ll stick around and put the knife through someone’s chest… Or like, it’s another tumor, it’s not a tumor at all. It’s the way I pronounce words that makes these iconic lines because people have fun repeating it with that accent.”