Polarized epithelial cells create tightly packed arrays of microvilli in their apical membrane, but the fate of these microvilli is relatively unknown when epithelial cell polarity is lost during wound healing. In this issue, Klingner et al. (2014. J. Cell Biol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201402037) show that, when epithelial cells become subconfluent, actomyosin contractions locally within the apical cortex cause their microvilli to become motile over the dorsal/apical surface. Their unexpected observations may have implications for epithelial responses in wound healing and disease.