diff --git a/bin/rip.in b/bin/rip.in
index 7dac0ab..80aad08 100755
--- a/bin/rip.in
+++ b/bin/rip.in
@@ -30,14 +30,9 @@ and assure it doesn't raise an exception.
     sys.exit(1)
 
 # now load the main function
-h = None
 
 try:
     from morituri.rip import main
     sys.exit(main.main(sys.argv[1:]))
 except ImportError, e:
-    if not h:
-        # we couldn't even import deps, so reraise
-        raise
-    h.handleImportError(e)
-    sys.exit(1)
+    raise ImportError(e)
diff --git a/morituri/rip/main.py b/morituri/rip/main.py
index 3693636..31d0ece 100644
--- a/morituri/rip/main.py
+++ b/morituri/rip/main.py
@@ -42,12 +42,10 @@ def main(argv):
         sys.stderr.write('rip: error: %s\n' % e.args)
         return 255
     except ImportError, e:
-        h.handleImportError(e)
-        return 255
+        raise ImportError(e)
     except task.TaskException, e:
         if isinstance(e.exception, ImportError):
-            h.handleImportError(e.exception)
-            return 255
+            raise ImportError(e.exception)
         elif isinstance(e.exception, common.MissingDependencyException):
             sys.stderr.write('rip: error: missing dependency "%s"\n' %
                 e.exception.dependency)