In Cast Away, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Zemeckis and two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks explore the blessings and cruelties of fate and the survival of the human spirit.

Hanks stars as Chuck Noland, a FedEx systems engineer whose personal and professional life are ruled by the clock. His fast-paced career takes him, often at a moment's notice, to far-flung locales—and away from his girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt).

Chuck's manic existence abruptly ends when, after a plane crash, he becomes isolated on a remote island—cast away into the most desolate environment imaginable. Stripped of the conveniences of everyday life, he first must meet the basic needs of survival including water, food and shelter. Chuck, the consummate problem solver, eventually figures out how to sustain himself physically. Chuck begins his true journey, however, as he faces the emotional ordeal of isolation.

After four years, Chuck returns to civilization as a profoundly changed man. He realizes that losing everything he ever had and thought important was the best thing that could ever have happened to him.

Zemeckis, in his second picture for DreamWorks during 2000 (following that summer's hit What Lies Beneath), directed Cast Away from a screenplay by William Broyles, Jr. (Flags of Our Fathers). The film was produced by Hanks for his brand-new Playtone production company, in collaboration with Zemeckis and his ImageMovers partners Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke.