AstroMovie Review: The God of Time in Cast Away

Welcome to another LINCOS AstroMovie review. [ Read or Watch the video here on Youtube.]

In May of 2025, Saturn entered briefly into the sign of Aries where it conjuncts Neptune, just before it retrogrades back out. It then fully enters the sign again in 2026. As an homage to Saturn’s dip into this Arian terrain, we’ve selected a film that speaks fully to the Saturnian archetype. We’re going to take a look at Robert Zemeckis’ survival film, Cast Away, released in 2000. The film stars Tom Hanks, who plays Chuck Noland, an obsessively punctual FedEx productivity manager, and Helen Hunt, his long-term girlfriend, Kelly Frears.

What’s interesting here is that we could have selected from among several of Hank’s films, because many of them do have Saturnian themes – movies such as The Terminal, Sully, Joe vs the Volcano, and even Splash. It’s true that most films involve some sort of conflict which tends to be shown by the slower planets, particularly Saturn and Pluto. But you might notice that many of Hanks’ films involve being stranded on or near water. Modern astrologers might not know this, but water is very much connected to Saturn, and we’ll get into this shortly. But for now, why does Tom Hanks seem to be drawn to films that have these marked Saturnian themes? We’re not going to spend the time to analyze his own chart here, since this is a beginner’s series and we focus mostly on the themes of the planets in films and not the charts of the creators involved in them. But we did check to see if Saturn was prominent in his chart. And while it isn’t especially noteworthy in its placement, it is manager of his career, and we can see its influence on his scripts, because it’s placed in the 3rd house of documents. Also, its dispositor is placed at an angle close to the cusp of the 7th. This tells us that his knowledge and communications, such as movie scripts, will play a pivotal role in his life and particularly in working partnerships.

But let’s move on to a deeper look at what Saturn means, so that we can get an idea of what to look for in the film. The first thing we should mention is the planet’s Greek name, Chronos, which means time. Many English words indicating time are rooted in this original meaning, such as "chronology", "chronic", "synchronous", etc... Saturn is the slowest of the visible planets, so it makes sense that the deity Chronos, who governs time, would rule over it. Saturn is often depicted as an old man because he indicates longevity and long lengths of time. This, of course, is the major theme of this film, and it gets portrayed in many ways, including in the pocket watch that Kelly gives him as a Christmas gift, which he sets to “Kelly time” to remind him of her when he’s traveling. But Chuck is a FedEx productivity manager, obsessed with beating time, and the whole conflict of the film revolves around his ability to survive a test of resilience and time, by being alone on a deserted Island for 4 years (resilience, by the way… also a Saturn keyword).

The film actually opens up with an example of how Chuck attempts to beat time, by sending a test package from Seattle to St. Petersburg, Russia. This package is a foreshadow of what’s to befall him because it fails to arrive on time, by getting delayed transiting through Russia. As he points out to his employees, "it manages to travel 9,000 miles from Seattle to Russia, in only 32 hours, only to linger 41 hours in Russia to travel 4 miles! This is why Chuck flies to St. Petersburg: to get the Russians to improve their performance. Work, performance, commitment and achievement are all Saturn themes; it’s after all, the planet that workaholics and high achievers embrace the most.

But let’s now take a slight detour to talk about the city of St. Petersburg, and the surprising coincidences that we ran into while researching this video. Of course, synchronicities are the bread and butter of astrology. Sometimes, though, they’re just too good not to point out. As stated earlier, Saturn entered Aries just a few weeks ago, where it conjoined Neptune at 1 degree of Aries. A conjunction of these two slow planets in Aries occurs only once every 323 years. The last one was in 1703, the exact year that St. Petersburg was founded by the Tsar Peter the Great.

Saturn is a deity that was originally a governor of canals and irrigation systems in Babylon. Later on, in Greek astrology, it became associated with sailors, and with the sea, more broadly. Neptune, or Poseidon as he’s called in Greece, is of course the god of the oceans, especially associated with storms at sea. Aries, and the first month of the Babylonian calendar, is also tied culturally to canals though the Akitu, a New Year’s festival held during the spring equinox. The film’s inclusion of St. Petersburg made us curious to know if it has any canals. And, oh boy, does it ever. Those of you in Russia can tell us more about this in the comments, but it can be found online that "St. Petersburg, Russia is famously known as the 'Venice of the North' due to its extensive network of canals and rivers that crisscross the city. These waterways not only define the city's landscape but also contribute to its unique charm and character." In addition, its location on the delta of the Neva River means that storms from the Baltic are so frequent that it prompted the building of the St. Petersburg Dam, which lasted from 1978 to 2011. The city is also implementing the Agile Resilience Plan – there’s that Saturn word again -- to strengthen its infrastructure and enhance its ability to withstand future storms.

There is another important aspect of Saturn that the film plays up during Chuck’s stay in St. Petersburg. This is Saturn’s ties to winter and to increased darkness. Saturn rules over two subsequent winter signs: Capricorn, where the winter solstice starts the season, and Aquarius, the cold month of January, indicated by the water-bearer, which again depicts Saturn’s water connection (which by the way, did not originate with Saturn, but with the Sumerian god Enki. But that’s a story for another time.) The winter months are the months with the longest nights, therefore those during which greater darkness prevails. This is especially so in the northern latitudes, such as in St. Petersburg. Chuck is there just before Christmas, at the time of the longest nights. This darkness theme is also played with on the island where Chuck gets stranded. There, a storm forces him to hide in a cave where his flashlight goes out and he’s plunged into darkness. But in the beginning of the film, we see him in his Russian hotel room while the lights flicker. He seems annoyed and doesn’t look up from his multitasking or his attempts to call Kelly. He simply mutters “those damn Northern Lights” as they cause the power to cut and plunge him into darkness. But Chuck is prepared – he’s got a headlamp and continues what he’s been doing, ignoring Saturn’s calls for him to slow down.

This is symbolic of his desire to conquer the limitations of Saturn, which is in reality what his job is all about. As the productivity troubleshooter for FedEx, he attempts to rob Saturn by chipping off microseconds from his employees’ performance, telling them “We don’t have to accept the way it is”. Necessity is the primary principle associated with Saturn because he governs over the lack of choice. And this is where the darkness comes in. The Sun represents choice, options, and the will to journey onward. Wherever there is light, we perceive options to choose from. That means that when there is darkness, there is a lack of choice, otherwise known as Necessity. It’s for this reason that work, commitments and limitations are signified by Saturn. We all have to work to survive. In that there is no choice. But it’s also true that necessity is “the mother of invention” because, when choices are limited, it forces us to get creative and use our imagination, which is what solar light is all about. Light inspires creation, while darkness removes choice. This dialectic between choice and necessity is embodied in the two opposing signs ruled by the Sun and Saturn. That is, Leo and Aquarius, respectively. So, too, Chuck ends up doing battle with, and confronting, necessity, by spending most of the film getting creative and inventive in order to survive life alone on a deserted island.

Still, when we first meet Chuck, he’s a guy who doesn’t much acknowledge or respect the power of Saturn. He lives consumed by Saturn’s restrictions without actually respecting them. For example, he’s so consumed with his work that he often neglects his relationship with Kelly, to the point where their delayed engagement becomes an annoying butt of family jokes. Commitments and delays are both Saturn keywords, because commitments restrict options and delays extend those restrictions. Commitments to our work or to accomplishing our goals, which is what Saturn tends to signify most frequently in charts, is what creates isolation from others, another very important Saturnian theme in the film. It's actually Chuck’s obsession with perfection in his work that ends up crashing his plane and creating the literal physical isolation from others, on a deserted island, for 4 years.

Another aspect of Saturn that is probably coincidentally depicted -- as it’s unlikely that the writers were consciously depicting astrological tropes -- is its rulership of the teeth and bones in the body. In a scene at Christmas dinner, we find out that Chuck has also been neglecting a bad tooth, which will later flair up while he’s a castaway. Out of necessity, he’s forced to extract the tooth himself by hitting his mouth with an ice skate that he unboxes from the packages that washed up onshore from his downed FedEx plane. In fact, in a poignant twist, it’s also his dentist who ends up marrying Kelly, while he’s stranded on the island. Saturn is absolutely not toying with Chuck.

Lastly, there’s the issue of coldness. Astrologically, Saturn is the coldest of the traditional planets because it is the farthest from the Sun. We start the film in one of the coldest, most northern major cities in Russia, very close to Christmas. This coldness is also symbolized in temperament. While Chuck is not a cold person, he doesn’t have the emotional warmth to be able to comfort his friend Stan, whose wife is dying of cancer. Instead, he awkwardly attempts to show his sympathy by giving Stan a referral for a specialist.

And it is in fact a warm tropical island environment that transforms him. We’ve already mentioned the ice skate as a tool that saves his life in many ways. But on the island, he’s forced to deal with all of the major Saturn issues that he’s neglected and passively allowed to fester. Much like his tooth. He confronts his loneliness by creatively becoming attached and talking to a salvaged volleyball that becomes his friend Wilson. When a metal port-a-potty washes up on shore, it inspires a creative plan of escape by turning the metal into sails and slowly building a raft from reeds. He appropriately says to Wilson “Let’s not commit the sin of turning our back on time”. When he returns after his 4-year ordeal, he asks for two buckets of ice and says simply "I like ice" -- a symbolic acknowledgement that he now recognizes that Saturn is a deity that he cannot fight and must integrate into himself.

On that island, he even confronts Saturn as harbinger of death. In a beautiful scene after his return, he describes his aborted suicide attempt to Stan by admitting: “The only thing I could control was when and how.  I couldn’t even kill myself the way I wanted to. I had power over nothing!” Control is another Saturn theme that presents itself to those who are very ambitious and determined. Often, it takes an encounter of Saturn with Neptune to humble us into the realization that we have no ultimate control. As he chronicles (and yes, that was an intentional pun), “I stayed alive and kept breathing. The tide came in and gave me a sail.” His tone reflects the acknowledged surrender that we often encounter with Neptune – which, like its waves, erodes everything that is rigid. Stan tells him that they had a burial for him when they believed that he was dead. “But tomorrow, we’re going to bring you back to life”, he says. This is symbolic of Chuck’s rebirth, much like Saturn in Aries, the first sign of a new cycle.

The end of the film is also beautifully captured. Chuck goes to Marfa, Texas, to deliver the single package that he never opened, while on the island. It was his original test package from Russia, which he recognizes because it had two circled angel wings on the envelope. Angel wings are a symbol of freedom, of divine protection, and sometimes indicative of speed. After he delivers the package to the attractive woman whom it belonged to, he stands at a crossroads in Texas – a sunny state -- and smiles. It’s an apropos symbol that his ordeal has ended and that choice and light are now fully back into his life.

This was a great movie to rewatch and review. We hope you also enjoyed it and learned a bunch about Saturn’s themes in astrology.