TERMINATOR: DARK FATE Director Tim Miller Was Forced To Include The Line "I'll Be Back"

While I enjoyed the hell out of Terminator: Dark Fate, there were some moments that I didn’t care for because they felt forced. One of those moments is when Linda Hamilton’s Sara Connor says, “I’ll be back.” The line has been used to death in this franchise and it didn’t really need to be in the movie, but it was one of those things that was forced fan service, but not by the director.

Director Tim Miller did not want to include the line, but the powers at be who were giving him the money to make the film made him put it in. You know, because it was going to make a great trailer moment. While talking to ReelBlend podcast, Miller explained that he didn't want to be accused of adding in the iconic Terminator beats simply for "fan service" so he didn’t plan on using them at all.

“I feel like because I love it and I can sit there and imagine someone on the internet or in movie theater watching this movie. And decide what is fan service, and what is honoring the franchise. I’m done with ‘Hasta la vista, baby.’ Honestly, I was kind of done with ‘I’ll be back.’”

When it comes to big studio films like this, there are a lot of people telling the director what they can and can’t have in the movie. They also tell them what needs to be in it. In this case, “I’ll be back” needed to be in the movie, but Miller made a compromise with them that they obviously agreed to:

“I’ll be honest. I had to be forced to use ‘I’ll be back.’ Then I said, if we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna do it differently. We’re gonna give it to Linda, and we’re gonna throw it away.”

I guess if you’re going to be forced to use something, you’d want to try and do something different with it. So, we got what we got, and it seems like a moment most fans didn’t care for. But, I guess it’s something we can’t blame the director for!