The following contains spoilers:
Ben Wade is repulsed by his own gang. Remember how he tells Evans how the whole gang is comprised of "animals" and how he loathes them? Unlike Ben, who's a smooth-talking criminal who wants to do things "the easy way," Evans' gang, led by psychopath Bonnie Prince, is a vile bunch of blood-lusty psychopaths with murder in their eyes. Wade uses his gang as a mere tool. He also admits and even states that he himself is "rotten to the core." Ben Wade has morals, but he choses to do bad things, while his gang seems to have no morals at all.
Ben Wade respects Evans' stubborness, which he can't quite comprehend. Wade is very touched by Evans' story about losing his leg in the Civil War. Ben Wade also realizes the conflict between the physically crippled Evans and his teenage son. The son has lost much respect for his seemingly weak and very pacifist father over time, and, to a certain degree, he idolizes the adventurous and idealized outlaw lifestyle (The movie begins with the kid reading an outlaw penny novel).
Ben Wade realizes that Evans is trying to regain the respect of his son and wife. When Bonnie Prince guns down Evans, Wade is repulsed by his second in command and shoots first him and then the remaining gang members. Maybe he also doesn't like Bonnie Prince not obeying him when he yells not to shoot. Ben Wade does not tolerate disobedience (This sis shown in another scene early on in the movie).
Wade gets on the train out of free will not because Evans' son has a gun on him, but because he does not want to kill the kid. Too much blood has been spilled already. Letting the kid complete his father's task is just a decent thing Wade does. Redemption it is not, ever. Of course, he knows that he will escape from the train during the trip to Yuma or from the jail in Yuma. We know Wade has escaped repeatedly from the Yuma jail in the past.
Is it realistic that Wade befriends his captor who is to deliver him to the gallows, that he guns down his own gang, that he spares the kid and that he gets on the train that will deliver him? No, it's not, but this is a fictional story and not a documentary or a docu-drama. You want to see a movie in which the protagonist gets killed without a "proper" end that ties up the story in a satisfying way? Go and see 'To Live and Die in LA." No wait, the ending of that movie wasn't satisfying at all.
I thought '3:10 to Yuma' was very good, not just as westerns go, which are rare these days, but just as a movie telling a compelling story with complex characters.
While this movie is a remake of the old Van Heflin western, based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, it is also a far more compelling movie than the original, with a superior script and better actors. Crow and Bale are excellent and a pleasure to watch, with Ben Foster as Bonnie Prince stealing every scene he's in.
