diff --git a/cmd/helm/rollback.go b/cmd/helm/rollback.go
index 2cd6fa2cb..35bdf3d7e 100644
--- a/cmd/helm/rollback.go
+++ b/cmd/helm/rollback.go
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ func newRollbackCmd(cfg *action.Configuration, out io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 	f := cmd.Flags()
 	f.BoolVar(&client.DryRun, "dry-run", false, "simulate a rollback")
 	f.BoolVar(&client.Recreate, "recreate-pods", false, "performs pods restart for the resource if applicable")
-	f.BoolVar(&client.Force, "force", false, "force resource update through delete/recreate if needed")
+	f.BoolVar(&client.Patch, "patch", false, "make a patch to the current resource by the three way merge result if needed")
 	f.BoolVar(&client.DisableHooks, "no-hooks", false, "prevent hooks from running during rollback")
 	f.DurationVar(&client.Timeout, "timeout", 300*time.Second, "time to wait for any individual Kubernetes operation (like Jobs for hooks)")
 	f.BoolVar(&client.Wait, "wait", false, "if set, will wait until all Pods, PVCs, Services, and minimum number of Pods of a Deployment, StatefulSet, or ReplicaSet are in a ready state before marking the release as successful. It will wait for as long as --timeout")
diff --git a/pkg/action/rollback.go b/pkg/action/rollback.go
index 8773b6271..7983695f8 100644
--- a/pkg/action/rollback.go
+++ b/pkg/action/rollback.go
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ type Rollback struct {
 	DisableHooks  bool
 	DryRun        bool
 	Recreate      bool // will (if true) recreate pods after a rollback.
-	Force         bool // will (if true) force resource upgrade through uninstall/recreate if needed
+	Patch         bool // will (if true) make a patch by the three way merge
 	CleanupOnFail bool
 	MaxHistory    int // MaxHistory limits the maximum number of revisions saved per release
 }
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ func (r *Rollback) performRollback(currentRelease, targetRelease *release.Releas
 		r.cfg.Log("rollback hooks disabled for %s", targetRelease.Name)
 	}
 
-	results, err := r.cfg.KubeClient.Update(current, target, r.Force)
+	results, err := r.cfg.KubeClient.Update(current, target, !r.Patch)
 
 	if err != nil {
 		msg := fmt.Sprintf("Rollback %q failed: %s", targetRelease.Name, err)
diff --git a/pkg/action/upgrade.go b/pkg/action/upgrade.go
index 949aebcae..43a98bc45 100644
--- a/pkg/action/upgrade.go
+++ b/pkg/action/upgrade.go
@@ -414,7 +414,7 @@ func (u *Upgrade) failRelease(rel *release.Release, created kube.ResourceList, e
 		rollin.Wait = true
 		rollin.DisableHooks = u.DisableHooks
 		rollin.Recreate = u.Recreate
-		rollin.Force = u.Force
+		rollin.Patch = !u.Force
 		rollin.Timeout = u.Timeout
 		if rollErr := rollin.Run(rel.Name); rollErr != nil {
 			return rel, errors.Wrapf(rollErr, "an error occurred while rolling back the release. original upgrade error: %s", err)