The T-800 says “I’ll be back” before leaving the police station in The Terminator.
The scene takes place after police officers refuse to let the Terminator see Sarah Connor. The machine calmly tells the desk sergeant that it will return, then drives a car through the station’s front entrance. The contrast between the polite wording and the violent action made the line memorable.
Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers the sentence in a deliberately flat, machine-like style. It became the character’s signature phrase and one of the most frequently quoted lines in film history. The wording is short, but its placement gives it unusual dramatic force because the audience immediately sees that the threat is literal.
The phrase is often confused with “Hasta la vista, baby,” another famous line associated with Schwarzenegger’s Terminator. That line appears in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, while “I’ll be back” originates in the first film.