All intracellular pathogens must escape (egress) from the confines of their host cell to disseminate and proliferate. The malaria parasite only replicates in an intracellular vacuole or in a cyst, and must undergo egress at four distinct phases during its complex life cycle, each time disrupting, in a highly regulated manner, the membranes or cyst wall that entrap the parasites. This Cell Science at a Glance article and accompanying poster summarises our current knowledge of the morphological features of egress across the Plasmodium life cycle, the molecular mechanisms that govern the process, and how researchers are working to exploit this knowledge to develop much-needed new approaches to malaria control.