FILM · 2007 · USA
3:10 to Yuma
32 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (32)
- #001
In the film, exactly 10 minutes pass between the clock striking 3 and the arrival of the train.
- #002
On the weekend before filming was completed, a terrible storm dumped nearly half a meter of snow on the drought-stricken town. Crew members shoveled snow off the buildings' balconies and roofs and spread the equivalent of eighty-nine dump trucks' worth of dry dirt on the ground. Backhoes built a two-and-a-half-meter-high snow rampart just beyond the camera's line of sight for the remaining six days of shooting.
- #003
The unfinished buildings that Wade and Evans run across during the exciting shootout were originally supposed to be fully completed, but the production did not have enough money to finish them.
- #004
Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda), who warns about the pain of the operation, tells Doc Potter (Alan Tudyk) that this is not his first time being shot. In real life, Peter Fonda accidentally shot himself in the stomach when he was ten years old.
- #005
Originally, the Marshal and his two Deputies only handed over their guns to the outlaws during the shootout. Later, the filmmakers faced a difficult plot problem in deciding what their role would be in the rooftop chase. Unable to reach a satisfactory answer, they decided to contradict the original script and had them shot dead after surrendering their weapons.
- #006
Russell Crowe was director James Mangold's first choice for the role of Ben Wade. After Tom Cruise withdrew from negotiations for the film and turned it down, it was Crowe's casting that got the production going again.
- #007
The film's ending is very different from 3:10 to Yuma (1957). In this adaptation, Evans is accompanied by his wife rather than his son, and by Wade. Also, in this adaptation Wade and Evans successfully board the train after shooting the other outlaws, whereas in this version Evans is fatally shot by the outlaws (whom Wade executes in retaliation). Wade boards the train but whistles for his horse shortly after sitting down.
- #008
Russell Crowe, director James Mangold and producer Cathy Konrad unanimously favored Christian Bale as the co-lead.
- #009
The short story the film is based on was published in Dime Western Magazine in 1953. The action begins with a Deputy Sheriff guarding a twenty-one-year-old robber in a hotel room.
- #010
On the first day of filming, a rider and his horse were seriously injured in the scene where the horse, instead of veering off the road as planned, crashed directly into a vehicle carrying a camera. The rider was taken to the hospital and the horse had to be euthanized on set. The animal's death led the American Humane Association to launch an investigation. By November the American Humane Association had completed its investigation, determining that the horse did not react properly because it had received a dual-training approach and the rider was not familiar with the mount. The organization recommended that no charges be filed against the producers.
- #011
One of the buildings in Contention is named "Shieffelin's Dance Hall." Ed Schieffelin was a prospector who founded the town of Tombstone, which once neighbored the site where Contention stood.
- #012
The brief dialogue between Ben (Russell Crowe) and Dan (Christian Bale) in the bar when Ben is captured is taken almost word for word from 3:10 to Yuma (1957), though some lines were given to the other man or their order in the conversation was changed.
- #013
The scene in which Russell Crowe contemplates the hawk before it flies away (after he draws) recalls the opening scene of Gladiator (2000). According to Ridley Scott, that scene was an improvisation devised by him and Crowe. They needed an opening moment to introduce Maximus before the battle. In this film, the same thing happens before the ram's attack.
- #014
The Civil War uniform Dan Evans mentions serving in was a real uniform. The Second Massachusetts Sharpshooters Company was actually founded in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. They were at Gettysburg, and their monument stood in an area of the battlefield called "The Loop."
- #015
Russell Crowe suggested Alan Tudyk for the role of Doc Potter, who helps Dan Evans (Christian Bale) in sending Ben Wade (Crowe) to court.
- #016
Director James Mangold initially wanted Kris Kristofferson as Byron McElroy.
- #017
In the '70s, Hughes Airwest (the Yellow Banana) operated a flight departing Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport for Yuma, AZ at 3:10 p.m. every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It was affectionately called "3:10 to Yuma."
- #018
The distance between Contention City, Arizona and Yuma, Arizona is about 320 miles.
- #019
The bird Ben (Russell Crowe) sketches is an African hawk-eagle.
- #020
The cast includes two Oscar winners, Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, and one Oscar nominee, Peter Fonda.
- #021
Eric Bana was in early talks to appear in this film alongside Tom Cruise.
- #022
Dan Evans (Christian Bale) uses a Spencer carbine with a .56-56 chamber, a Colt 1851 Navy revolver converted to Richards-Mason cartridge ignition (the same revolver carried by William (Logan Lerman)), and a cut-down Remington 1889 shotgun. Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) uses a Colt 1873 Single Action chambered in .45 Long Colt with a gold cross inlaid into ebony grips. Charlie Prince (Ben Foster) carries two 1869 Smith & Wesson Schofields in .45 caliber with special cross-draw holsters. Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda) carries the same 1889-made shotgun that Evans later uses. A Colt Gatling gun is in the train car at the start of the film, and the two shooters inside have .44-40 caliber Winchester 1873 rifles.
- #023
One of the deputies in the shootout is named Sam Fuller, a reference to the cult director of the same name.
- #024
Russell Crowe's role was first played by Glenn Ford. Ford played Clark Kent's adoptive father Jonathan Kent in Superman (1978), while Crowe played his biological father Jor-El in Man of Steel (2013).
- #025
A building in the town of Contention reads "Besser's Parlor." The executive producer is Stuart M. Besser.
- #026
The film was financed together with New Mexico's Film Investment Program.
- #027
Kevin Durand (Tucker) and Russell Crowe (Ben Wade) also appeared together in Mystery, Alaska (1999) and Robin Hood (2010).
- #028
In the end credits, the name of co-writer Halsted Welles is misspelled.
- #029
Ben Wade's comment about Al Pinkerton's death in July 1884 suggests the film takes place in August 1884. However, this may not be accurate, since the pump-action shotgun used by Byron and later by Dan was not in production until 1889.
- #030
The handgun used by Dan Evans (Christian Bale) is a 1851 Navy Colt with a Richards-Mason conversion.
- #031
Christian Bale and Russell Crowe both played DC Comics film characters. Bale played Bruce Wayne/Batman. Crowe played Jor-El (Superman's father).
- #032
Actor Christian Bale comes from Pembrokeshire in Wales. The surname "Evans" of the film character Dan Evans is also of Welsh origin.
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