It’s been a while since I’ve looked at a specifically Save the Cat beat– I still like Blake’s theories, but I prefer to have them percolating in my mind along with other theories, as opposed to slavishly following a formula.
Reading 3:10 To Yuma, though, did provide a neat example of the Opening Image being referenced in the Closing Image.
Early in the Contention draft (2004) the outlaw Ben Wade utilises a cattle stampede to achieve his goal of robbing a heavily-armed stagecoach.
A cattle stampede is utilised again at the end– a nice call-back to the opening.
There was another strong image at the beginning that I thought was going to be called-back in the closing scenes. On page 11 one of Wade’s gang members, Campos, is captured and used as a human shield. Wade shoots his own man, exposing his enemy, who he then kills.
I felt for sure this scenario was going to be reappear at the end, maybe requiring the protagonist’s son to shoot him as a way of getting to Wade– but it never eventuated as I envisioned it reading those first few pages.