The endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT) assemble into a multisubunit machinery that performs a topologically unique membrane bending and scission reaction away from the cytoplasm. This evolutionarily highly conserved process is required for the multivesicular body (MVB) pathway, cytokinesis and HIV budding. The modular setup of the machinery with five distinct ESCRT complexes (ESCRT-0, -I, -II, -III and the Vps4 complex) that have a clear division of tasks — from interaction with ubiquitinated membrane proteins to membrane deformation and abscission — allows them to be flexibly integrated into these three very different biological processes (Figure 1).