Could also be a potential comedy.

Wouldn't you be pissed if you came back from a life threatening situation to find out -- "Oh yeah, we gave up the search months ago. Sorry bout that, ol' chap."

How much life changed while you were gone. How you can't do anything because technically you are dead.

It'd be like a comedic version of The Sixth Sense. "Dude, I see dead people." "I told you! I'm not dead!"

Would need some development for stakes. Not totally sure it has the mustard to be a full movie. But might be a nice little short story.

James: I like the comedy angle.

Yeah, could be a comedy. What if it's revealed that they knew where they were the whole time but left them there on purpose? Then the protag has to figure out why. It's a mystery!

Scott, if you are your readers are interesting in pursuing this story as a drama, I highly recommend an excellent book by Laurence Gonzales: "Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why". It's a great read, and it has sections that talk about exactly this kind of situation. Plus it will probably inspire dozens of writing ideas. It's one of my favourite recent non-fiction books.

@Shaula: Thanks for that rec. There are many reasons human survival stories grab people's attention, not the least of which is it provides us an affirmation re life in terms of our own mortality. I'll definitely check out the book. In fact I'll update the OP with a HT to you. Thx!

If you don't already check it out, this is a pretty good site for weird and interesting news stories:

http://www.forteantimes.com/latest/breaking-news/