diff --git a/sbt b/sbt
index 5ab69d315..c32343fe0 100755
--- a/sbt
+++ b/sbt
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ download_url () {
   local jar="$2"
   mkdir -p $(dirname "$jar") && {
     if command -v curl > /dev/null; then
-      curl --silent -L "$url" --output "$jar"
+      curl --fail --silent -L "$url" --output "$jar"
     elif command -v wget > /dev/null; then
       wget --quiet -O "$jar" "$url"
     else