We used cytoplasmic extracts from chicken DU249 cells at various stages along the apoptotic pathway to analyse the events of apoptotic execution. So-called S/M extracts from morphologically normal 'committed-stage' cells induce apoptotic morphology and DNA cleavage in substrate nuclei. These apoptotic changes appear to require the function of multiple caspases (cysteine aspartases, a specialized class of proteases) acting in parallel. Extracts from 'execution-stage' apoptotic cells induce apoptotic events in added nuclei in a caspase-independent manner. Biochemical fractionation of these extracts reveals that a column fraction enriched in endogenous active caspases is unable to induce DNA fragmentation or chromatin condensation in substrate nuclei, whereas a caspase-depleted fraction induces both changes. 'Execution-stage' extracts contain an ICAD/DFF45-inhibitable nuclease resembling CAD, plus another activity that is required for the apoptotic chromatin condensation. 'Committed-stage' S/M extracts lack these downstream activities. These observations reveal that caspases act in an executive fashion, serving to activate downstream factors that disassemble the nucleus rather than disassembling it themselves. They also suggest that activation of the downstream factors (rather than the caspases) is the critical event that occurs at the transition from the latent to the execution phase of apoptosis.