diff --git a/lib/unpack.js b/lib/unpack.js
index b24ad72a..282e04f9 100644
--- a/lib/unpack.js
+++ b/lib/unpack.js
@@ -338,6 +338,10 @@ class Unpack extends Parser {
     stream.on('error', er => {
       if (stream.fd)
         fs.close(stream.fd, () => {})
+      // flush all the data out so that we aren't left hanging
+      // if the error wasn't actually fatal.  otherwise the parse
+      // is blocked, and we never proceed.
+      stream.write = () => true
       this[ONERROR](er, entry)
       fullyDone()
     })
@@ -510,7 +514,6 @@ class Unpack extends Parser {
           done()
         } else if (er || this[ISREUSABLE](entry, st))
           this[MAKEFS](null, entry, done)
-
         else if (st.isDirectory()) {
           if (entry.type === 'Directory') {
             if (!this.noChmod && (!entry.mode || (st.mode & 0o7777) === entry.mode))
diff --git a/test/make-tar.js b/test/make-tar.js
index 0817a788..33de124b 100644
--- a/test/make-tar.js
+++ b/test/make-tar.js
@@ -4,14 +4,22 @@ if (module === require.main)
   return require('tap').pass('this is fine')
 
 const Header = require('../lib/header.js')
-module.exports = chunks =>
-  Buffer.concat(chunks.map(chunk => {
-    if (Buffer.isBuffer(chunk))
+module.exports = chunks => {
+  let dataLen = 0
+  return Buffer.concat(chunks.map(chunk => {
+    if (Buffer.isBuffer(chunk)) {
+      dataLen += chunk.length
       return chunk
-    const buf = Buffer.alloc(512)
+    }
+    const size = Math.max(typeof chunk === 'string'
+      ? 512 * Math.ceil(chunk.length / 512)
+      : 512)
+    dataLen += size
+    const buf = Buffer.alloc(size)
     if (typeof chunk === 'string')
       buf.write(chunk)
     else
       new Header(chunk).encode(buf, 0)
     return buf
-  }), chunks.length * 512)
+  }), dataLen)
+}
diff --git a/test/unpack.js b/test/unpack.js
index e89b2132..f901543e 100644
--- a/test/unpack.js
+++ b/test/unpack.js
@@ -2880,3 +2880,42 @@ t.test('close fd when error setting mtime', t => {
   })
   unpack.end(data)
 })
+
+t.test('do not hang on large files that fail to open()', t => {
+  const data = makeTar([
+    {
+      type: 'Directory',
+      path: 'x',
+    },
+    {
+      type: 'File',
+      size: 31745,
+      path: 'x/y',
+    },
+    'x'.repeat(31745),
+    '',
+    '',
+  ])
+  t.teardown(mutateFS.fail('open', new Error('nope')))
+  const dir = path.resolve(unpackdir, 'no-hang-for-large-file-failures')
+  mkdirp.sync(dir)
+  const WARNINGS = []
+  const unpack = new Unpack({
+    cwd: dir,
+    onwarn: (code, msg) => WARNINGS.push([code, msg]),
+  })
+  unpack.on('end', () => {
+    t.strictSame(WARNINGS, [['TAR_ENTRY_ERROR', 'nope']])
+    t.end()
+  })
+  unpack.write(data.slice(0, 2048))
+  setTimeout(() => {
+    unpack.write(data.slice(2048, 4096))
+    setTimeout(() => {
+      unpack.write(data.slice(4096))
+      setTimeout(() => {
+        unpack.end()
+      })
+    })
+  })
+})