Trivia
Russell Crowe, director James Mangold, and producer Cathy Konrad unanimously preferred Christian Bale as the co-lead.
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Russell Crowe was director James Mangold's very first choice for the role of Ben Wade. After Tom Cruise dropped out of talks for the film, putting it into turnaround, it was the casting of Crowe that got the production back up and running.
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The weekend before shooting was scheduled to wrap, a freak storm dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on the supposedly drought plagued town. Labourers shoveled the snow from the buildings' balconies and roofs and distributed 89 dump trucks worth of dry soil on the ground. Backhoes created an 8 foot tall rampart of snow just beyond camera sight lines for the remaining 6 days of shooting.
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The short story upon which the film is based was published in Dime Western Magazine in 1953. The action begins in the hotel room with a deputy sheriff guarding a 21-year-old robber.
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A building in the town of Contention reads "Besser's Parlor." The executive producer is Stuart M. Besser.
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The pistol used by Dan Evans (Christian Bale) is an 1851 navy colt with a Richards-Mason conversion.
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Dan Evans uses a Spencer carbine chambered for .56-56, a Colt 1851 navy revolver with a Richards-Mason conversion to fire cartridges (identical to the revolver carried by William), and a Remington 1889 sawed off shotgun. Ben Wade uses a Colt 1873 single action Chambered for .45 Long Colt, with a gold crucifix inlaid in the ebony grips. Charlie Prince carries two 1869 Smith and Wesson Schofields, chambered in .45 S&W, with custom cross-draw holsters. Byron McElroy carries the same 1889 shotgun Evans later uses. The coach in the beginning of the movie is fitted with a Colt Gatling gun, and the two shooters inside have Winchester 1873 rifles chambered in .44-40 caliber.
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The unfinished buildings that Wade and Evans run through in the climatic shootout in the town of Contention were originally supposed to be fully finished, but production ran too low on money to have them completed.
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The short, dark-bearded man whom the doctor hits in the face with a shovel, in the tunnels, is the weapons expert for the film.
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At one point, Tom Cruise and Eric Bana were pursuing the starring roles in this film. But when Columbia Pictures put this film in turnaround, the actors left to pursue other projects.
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When Russell Crowe was no longer committed to Baz Luhrmann's next film, he actively pursued this film as his next project. James Mangold immediately signed Crowe when Tom Cruise, who was in talks to play Ben Wade, bowed out.
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Russell Crowe suggested Alan Tudyk for the role of the doctor that assists Dan Evans (Christian Bale) in sending Ben Wade (Crowe) off to trial.
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Exactly ten minutes pass in the movie between the clock striking 3:00 and the arrival of the train.
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Director James Mangold originally wanted Kris Kristofferson as Byron MacElroy, but due to scheduling conflicts Peter Fonda got the part.
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Warned about the pain of surgery, Byron MacElroy tells Doc Potter that it's not the first time he's been shot. In real life, Peter Fonda accidentally shot himself in the stomach when he was 10.
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The terse dialogue between Ben and Dan in the bar when Ben is captured is taken almost verbatim from the original film, although some of the lines have been given to the other man or its order in the conversation changed.
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One building in Contention is called "Shieffelin's Dance Hall". Ed Schieffelin was a prospector who founded the town of Tombstone, which is a neighboring city of where Contention once stood.
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In a deleted scene (included on the DVD), Ben Wade tells Byron McElroy, "I heard that your boss, Al Pinkerton, got an infection from biting his own tongue. And he died last month. Is that true?" Allan Pinkerton did die from an infected bite on his tongue, on July 1, 1884. This would place the events of the movie as occurring in August, 1884.
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