diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/cmd/upgrade.rb b/Library/Homebrew/cmd/upgrade.rb
index 566649ed38..9a24480662 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/cmd/upgrade.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/cmd/upgrade.rb
@@ -29,14 +29,16 @@ module Homebrew extend self
       end
     end
 
-    # Expand the outdated list to include outdated dependencies then sort and
-    # reduce such that dependencies are installed first and installation is not
-    # attempted twice. Sorting is implicit the way `recursive_deps` returns
-    # root dependencies at the head of the list and `uniq` keeps the first
-    # element it encounters and discards the rest.
-    outdated.map!{ |f| f.recursive_deps.reject{ |d| d.installed?} << f }
-    outdated.flatten!
-    outdated.uniq!
+    unless ARGV.include? '--ignore-dependencies'
+      # Expand the outdated list to include outdated dependencies then sort and
+      # reduce such that dependencies are installed first and installation is not
+      # attempted twice. Sorting is implicit the way `recursive_deps` returns
+      # root dependencies at the head of the list and `uniq` keeps the first
+      # element it encounters and discards the rest.
+      outdated.map!{ |f| f.recursive_deps.reject{ |d| d.installed?} << f }
+      outdated.flatten!
+      outdated.uniq!
+    end
 
     if outdated.length > 1
       oh1 "Upgrading #{outdated.length} outdated package#{outdated.length.plural_s}, with result:"