For the ending, it also made me go “WTF?” and feel a little hollow. But, then it made sense.

First, he got onto the train at the end, since he wasn’t scared of going to Yuma. He mentioned he had escaped twice, and certainly expected to do so again. Whistling for his horse to follow was probably a clue that his escape was coming.

I don’t think he could have called his gang off. Remember, the whole town was after him (well, Dan) by this point. A flood was started, and he couldn’t have stopped it. But, he also wanted Dan’s son to give him the proper respect. He liked Dan, and had some respect for him. He saw in him what he could have been, and maybe deep inside wanted to be (he wanted to escape with the bartender to Mexico.. his life as an outlaw didn’t seem to be what he wanted anymore). Also, he wanted Dan to get paid. Dan was, in a sense, his mirror image. So, a few reasons why he was running from his own gang, and probably didn’t/couldn’t call them off.

My guess on his killing his gang is that, well, he didn’t care about them. His plan, I think, was to go to Yuma, escape, get his money, and go to Mexico (with the hot bartender). His gang didn’t matter at that point. Probably better off dead if he wanted to head to Mexico since he’d keep their money, and wouldn’t have to worry about them following.

I think what was missing was more (blatant?) clues to what Wade wanted. I only make my hypothesis based on some of the things he said, some things he did, and some things he didn’t do (like kill Dan, who was his biggest threat, and he had plenty of chances).

I didn’t see the original, but this ending was also a typical Hollywood ending so they can leave open for a “Last we saw Wade, he was on the 3:10 to Yuma….”

i think that the crowe character was supposed to be an elemental part of the untamable western spirit. that undefined something that makes up the american blah blah blah. that it got its eternal power from ‘playing the game’ and that the bale character was the first add to the play list that it had ever seen there for it watched it play itself out to the end, ensuring that it could hit redo and run the story over by calling its horse to follow after.

i dunno… it falls into the unforgiven catagory for me. it was very good but the things that make the western genre attractive to me were missing. it was a crossover movie for something that didn’t need to cross over for me to see it. its efforts to cater to a mainstream audience were mostly lost on me.

i did get all emotional watching alan tudyk pull another wash.