An anachronistic looking man wearing a white starched shirt, black tie and horned rimmed glasses, sweats out a heatwave on a dead-stopped Los Angeles freeway. His air-conditioning falters while he’s fumigated by the noxious emissions emanating from the old wreck of car in front of him.
Certainly, many people in this hemmed in situation would be uncomfortable, angry or impatient. The difference here it that this man is an AIR SIGN, a LIBRAN who takes if upon himself to ESCAPE the situation by just abandoning the car and walking off the freeway, because AIR ESCAPES.
Some of you may already know that this is the opening scene from the movie FALLING DOWN with LIBRA/VIRGO CUSP/Michael Douglas, which uses an opening shot adaptation from 8 1/2 with LIBRA/VIRGO CUSP/Marcello Mastriani. It is certainly is excellent example of AIR ESCAPES, for AIR is light and whimsical as it seemingly randomly moves from one place to another, sometimes without regard for where it winds up. It’s the new experience that its after, and so it lets go and allows it to happen.
As astrology is organically based in the elements FIRE, EARTH, AIR, and WATER, we can begin to see that AIR as the lightest of these elements, is the hardest to contain as it escapes through the cracks in all directions, rather than just down like WATER or EARTH, and of course FIRE cannot exist at all without AIR and EARTH. Ultimately, air signs are akin to the greased pigs of the zodiac, as they are the hardest to contain, especially GEMINI as it is the lightest sign of all. This is why they dominate films about gaining freedom, especially prison breaks like THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ, THE COUNT ON MONTE CRISTO, or the classic I DIE EACH DAWN that influenced SHAWSHANK. You will find AIR SIGNS starring, virtually every time. As these films star in order, LIBRA/Tim Robbins and GEMINI/Morgan Freeman, GEMINI/Clint Eastwood, LIBRANS/Jim Caviezel, Guy Pierce and Richard Harris, and George Raft whom shares a birthday with Caviezal.
Another amazing example of an air sign prison break is the film THE ESCAPIST, which is about a group of men escaping from prison and every single one is a GEMINI! Brian Cox (June 1st), Dominic Cooper and Liam Cunningham (both on June 2nd), Joseph Fiennes (May 27th), and Seu Jorge (June 8th). It was also released on the last day of GEMINI and is about FREEDOM. No one would like prison , but no would like it less than an AIR sign especially GEMINI. In the classic COOL HAND LUKE, we find AQUARIAN/Paul Newman intent on escape. He actually escapes three times, and on the last one, his best buddy AQUARIUS/George Kennedy can’t help but join him. Newman has awakened his inner AQUARIUS that has long been dormant.
We see this escape feature in many other kinds of films as well, like LIBRA/Matt Damon in THE BOURNE IDENTITY who is pursued and escapes throughout the film, or LIBRA/Susan Sarandon and AQUARIUS/Geena Davis in THELMA AND LOUISE, where a holiday, that is a form of escape, turns into our heroines being chased across the country which climaxes with the ultimate escape as they drive off a cliff and FLY into the grand canyon, ultimately committing suicide.
FREE WILLY which is a film about an incarcerated whale that LIBRA/Lori Petty helps to escape along with AQUARIUS/Jason James Richter, LIBRA/Micheal Madson, and AQUARIUS/Jayne Atkinson. Heck, even the whale was an AIR sign, played by Keiko was a LIBRA!
Another water adventure, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, should have some kind of a world record for having the most AQUARIANS ever assembled in one film. Virtually every cut takes you to the face of another AQUARIAN, and some of those frames are literally filled with them. Not surprising, since there are six AQUARIAN actors in this film, they are trying to escape. Most of the rest of the cast is all AIR also. This film taught me that AIR ESCAPES, because even thought it is about a ship wreck, their goal is AIR and to get to the surface to find it.
EX MACHINA has LIBRA/Alicia Vikander playing an android who uses her LIBRAN charm and intelligence to escape. She’s also constantly escaping as Lara Croft in TOMB RAIDER, in a part that was made famous by fellow air sign and escape artist GEMINI/Angelina Jolie.
GEMINI/JulyGarland escapes to OZ in THE WIZARD OF OZ. Even a film like A CLOCKWORK ORANGE becomes ultimately about escaping a prison and the radical treatment that his jailer used on the main character Alex, (GEMINI/Malcolm McDowell) when he jumps out a window to try to kill himself, but instead, ultimately escapes the punishment for his crimes as the fall destroys the programming they used on him, or more importantly, his medical prison.
I could go on and on, AQUARIUS/Gemma Arterton in THE ESCAPE and PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME, AQUARIUS/Taylor Lautner escapes goons the CIA in ABDUCTION, AQUARIUS/Christina Ricci in tries to escape from her would-be abductor/teacher in BLACK SNAKE MOAN, but instead escapes her former mental trauma. GEMINI/Mark Wahlberg escapes the men who set him up as an assassin in SHOOTER. In SIDEWAYS Gemini/Paul Giamati and GEMINI/Hayden Church try to escape the realities of their inauthentic lives. AQUARIUS/Joseph Gordon-Levitt, escapes a corrupt gambling-addicted NYPD detective in PREMIUM RUSH. AQUARIANS/ John Travolta, and Karen Lynn Gorney escape their social class and cross the bridge to Manhattan in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. GEMINI/Nicole Kidman escapes from her family and Irish societal restrictions and flees to America in FAR AND AWAY. GEMINI/Tony Curtis and AQUARIUS/Jack Lemon escape from mobsters and join an all girl band with GEMINI/Marylin Monroe in SOME LIKE IT HOT. In BACK TO THE FUTURE and SECRET OF MY SUCCESS GEMINI/Michael J. Fox is something of a greased pig, escaping in almost every scene, as are GEMINI/Kathleen Turner and LIBRA/ Micheal Douglas in ROMANCING THE STONE. We find GEMINI/Johnny Depp escaping in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN as air signs also rule swords.
And even though it doesn’t seem like it, this is a short list. AIR is light and floats and will find a way out. And certainly you could find other examples of actors finding freedom, but the frequency and amount of these actors on-screen doing this is pure AIR.
What can I say…AIR ESCAPES.
© Ian Boyd 2021 (All Rights Reserved)