The intense investigation of cell death pathways over the past few years has uncovered elevated complexity with panoply of molecular interactions, multiple intersecting gene networks and bidirectional crosstalk among disparate cellular regulators. What has remained more elusive is how these interactions are spatially arranged in the "four dimensions" of the cell as a whole, and their true relevance to human diseases. Fresh evidence obtained with survivin has unraveled a process of dynamic subcellular shuttling that is required to inhibit apoptosis during tumor growth, with the mitochondrion playing a central, orchestrating role.