<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $6.9 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $41,410,568 </Td> </Tr> <P> Pale Rider is a 1985 American western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, who also stars in the lead role . The title is a reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of a pale horse is Death . The film, which took in nearly $41 million at the box office, became the highest grossing Western of the 1980s . </P> <P> Outside the snowy mountain town of Lahood, California, thugs working for big - time miner Coy LaHood ride in and destroy the camp of a group of prospectors and their families who have settled to pan for gold in nearby Carbon Canyon . While leaving, they shoot a dog belonging to fourteen - year - old Megan Wheeler . As Megan buries her dog in the woods and prays for a miracle, thunder rolls and a stranger rides down the slopes . </P>

Who was the pale rider supposed to be