Giant viruses are enormous in size and complexity, hampering our understanding of their life cycles. Scrad et al. developed an in vitro model of Mimivirus infection to understand the initial stages of the life cycle and viral genome release. By subjecting virions to different environmental conditions, including low pH, high temperature and high salt concentrations, they were able to generate four infection intermediates that represent different stages of genome release through the starfish-shaped delivery portal known as stargate. The authors visualized the different intermediates by electron microscopy and identified proteins that are released during the initial stages of infection using mass spectrometry, allowing them to propose a model of genome release. In their model, the stargate portal slowly ‘unzips’ rather than releasing the genome en masse.