Arizona, 1884
One night, Glen Hollander sends Tucker to set fire to Dan Evans’ barn. Evans, missing part of his left leg, runs outside, but is floored. Tucker says Evans has one week, then they burn the house.
Next day, Evans and sons, Will and Mark, must round up their herd of cattle. Then, Evans will make Hollander pay for a new barn. Eldest son, Will, instead wants blood.
Outlaw, Charlie Prince, tells boss, Ben Wade, the coach is headed for Bisbee. It’s girded with iron, Pinks on top, double shotguns and a Gatling gun. Wade’s men then ride at the coach.
Two men work the Gatling gun. Wade’s sharpshooter, Campos, picks one off. Wade spooks Evans’ cattle with gunfire, sending them into the valley. The coach is overturned.
Wade arrives and recognises Byron McElroy. McElroy tells Wade to hurry up and kill him, but Wade won’t. The coach explodes and the valuable safe box accessed.
A coachman takes a bandit hostage. Wade shoots the bandit, who belongs to Wade’s gang, then the coachman. Will is transfixed. Wade then disarms Evans. Evans can keep his cattle, but Wade will need Evans’ horses, which will be returned later.
Grayson Butterfield, the railroad representative, tells Marshal Weather Pinkertons are paid $18 a day not to be late. Prince reports a coach having been held up by Wade himself and the lawmen scramble.
Wade’s men make everyone else at a saloon leave. Shots are arranged and Prince toasts to the four they lost. And, to the Boss who had to “say goodbye” to Tommy Darden.
The money’s divided-up. Wade’s soon alone with the barmaid. He asks if she ever worked for a blind Irishman in Leadville and mentions liking green eyes.
Evans tells his sons he’ll take injured McElroy — the only one from the coach who lived — into town while they get the herd. Evans tells Butterfield it was Wade, headed for Bisbee.
A wounded McElroy’s a bounty hunter under contract with the Pinkertons. He breathes deeply as Dr Potter extracts the bullet and drops it into a tin dish.
Evans says Hollander has no right to dam up Evans’ creek and stop his water. Tucker floors Evans. Hollander says Evans’ land’s worth more with Evans off it.
Wade appears upstairs and checks that Evans got his horses and cattle back. Evans says Wade killed two beeves. Wade gives Evans compensation, a full day’s pay for Evans and his sons. Evans demands a further $5 for making him nervous.
Wade’s overpowered by Marshal Weathers. Tucker sees the Hand of God crucifix on Wade’s gun, which Wade says is cursed. The Marshal says they’ve gotta move Wade.
The Marshal needs three more men. McElroy will come. Potter will come. Butterfield will pay Evans $200 to come. The Marshal says Evans, Crawley and Tucker should head for Evans’ ranch where the coach will meet them.
Evans’ wife, Alice, asks Evans how long Wade will be at their ranch. Evans says an hour, to make sure Wade’s outfit takes the bait. The coach gets stuck in a ditch.
Prince watches from a distance. Wade’s hat’s switched with Crawley’s and soon, the coach is moving again. In Wade’s place, Crawley should reach the fort before dawn.
Gunshots outside the house alert everyone to investigate. Inside, Wade discreetly pockets a table fork, asking Alice if she’s ever been to San Francisco. Alice tells Evans Wade’s not what she expected.
Evans doesn’t want anyone talking to Wade. Alice says there’s still time for Evans to change his mind. He says six months on, everything’s gonna be green and the cows will be fat, but only if Evans does this thing.
Otherwise, they start from scratch again somewhere else. McElroy tells Wade they’re taking him to Contention and putting him on the 3:10 to Yuma the day after next. That night, Will secretly arms himself and climbs out the window.
Around the campfire, Wade asks Evans what he’s doing there with a family to protect. Evans doesn’t like the thought of Wade being on the loose. Wade says Evans must really be broke.
If Alice were Wade’s wife, he’d feed her better, buy her pretty dresses and wouldn’t make her work so hard. Wade bets Alice used to be real pretty before she married Evans.
Evans attacks Wade, a side of him Wade likes. Later, Tucker’s singing annoyingly. Wade kills Tucker. Potter then finds a fork buried deep in Tucker’s throat. Wade only laughs.
Campos picks off the coach driver. Prince removes Crawley’s gun and the coach is torched with Crawley locked inside. A coughing Crawley says they’re going to Contention to put Wade on the 3:10 to Yuma prison the following day.
Contention’s eighty miles away, a distance possibly fatal for the gang’s horses. One bandit blames Wade himself for having gotten caught. Prince overpowers him and says Wade’s done a lot for them. Crawley burns to death.
Evans says there’s a shortcut to Contention through Apache country, those that stayed to fight the government. They enjoy killing. Wade saw McElroy and some other Pinks slaughter thirty two Apache women and children.
McElroy says keep on talking, all the way to Yuma, right up the steps, to the rope, straight to Hell. Wade claims he’s getting sprung even from Hell.
McElroy insults Wade’s parents, so Wade knocks McElroy unconscious, disarms the others and throws McElroy off a drop to his death.
Will appears and helps his father regain the upper hand. Will asks Wade about Dodge City. Wade says it was the meanest, most beautiful, dirty city there ever was.
Saloons full of cattle drivers, road agents, prospectors, gunslingers, gamblers and women. With money in your pocket, you can have everything a man ever wished for.
Evans asks how many Wade’s killed since, how many families destroyed. Wade needs to take a leak. When alone, Evans emphasises Will’s nothing like Wade. Then, they’re shot at by Apaches.
Wade pulls Evans down. There’s three people shooting. Wade runs at them and shoots two, fatally slashing a third. Wade asks for the keys to the handcuffs, but Evans throws them away. Wade still leaves with the horses.
At a construction camp, boss, Walter Boles recognises Ben Wade seeking help with his handcuffs. Boles captures Wade, suspends him by the wrists and keeps electrocuting him.
When the others arrive, Butterfield explains his position to Boles. Boles says Wade gunned down his kid brother six years ago in Abilene. There’s a gunfight and Evans’ group escapes. Potter is shot. The group explode dynamite which successfully collapses the tunnel behind them.
Wade’s gang arrives at the camp soon after. Prince sees Zeke’s carrying Wade’s revolver, so he kills the whole posse in cold blood.
Wade reckons Evans’ price is a thousand dollars. For that, Evans could hire ranch hands, his sons could go to school, and Alice would be the proud wife of a bona fide Arizona rancher. Evans tells Wade to stop talking.
Butterfield finds help and a sheriff’s star is slid under the door. Marshal Will Doane introduces his two finest men. Now, there’s five of them. Will raises the alarm — seven bandits approaching.
Prince tells townsfolk Ben Wade’s in that hotel, offering two hundred cash dollars to anyone who shoots Wade’s captors. Suddenly, there’s thirty, forty more guns outside.
Doane says there’s only five guarding Wade. Butterfield offers to double Doane’s money. Doane and men soon surrender to Prince and are all executed anyway.
Will tells Wade to call off his gang, believing Wade’s not all bad. Wade saved them from Indians, got them through the tunnels and helped them escape.
Wade says he wouldn’t last five minutes leading his outfit if he wasn’t as rotten as hell. Butterfield officially releases Evans from the contract. Evans says the government gave Evans $198.36 for his leg.
They weren’t paying him to walk away. They were paying him so they could walk away. Evans wants Butterfield to take Will home, with guarantees that Hollander won’t threaten his ranch ever again.
Butterfield should give Alice one thousand cash dollars. Evans wants Will to give Evans’ medal back to Alice. It helped Evans find what was right.
Evans needs Will to run things at the ranch and protect the family. Will has all the best parts of Evans. Will should remember his old man walked Ben Wade to that station when nobody else would.
A clock chimes three. It’s a half mile to the station. Immediately outside, Evans is shot at. He and Wade crawl along the floor, behind sacks and barrels.
Prince yells the rancher, not the black hat, offering everyone insults and killing indiscriminately. Wade says he’s stopping being friendly to Evans. Evans kills someone and says Wade’s getting on that train.
Wade’s soon strangling Evans. Evans confesses he’s no hero. The only action he saw was in retreat and his foot was shot off by his own side. Evans asks Wade how his son could respect him knowing that.
The railroad clerk tells Evans: first car, sliding door. Evans leads Wade there and says he’s got a prisoner to go to Yuma. Wade climbs aboard and tells Evans he did it.
Prince shoots Evans four times up close. He says for a one-legged rancher he sure is tough and throws Wade his gun belt. Wade kills Prince and the remaining five of his gang each with a single bullet.
Having escaped Yuma prison twice before, Wade gets in the cell on board and surrenders his gun belt. Once the train leaves, Wade whistles for his horse. This quickly catches up with the leaving train.
Starring Russell Crowe. Christian Bale. Ben Foster. Rated 15. Dir James Mangold. Released in the UK 2007. Runtime 2hrs 2mins
