diff --git a/lib/thor.rb b/lib/thor.rb
index 1409623b3..7884711fe 100644
--- a/lib/thor.rb
+++ b/lib/thor.rb
@@ -507,3 +507,5 @@ def help(command = nil, subcommand = false)
     end
   end
 end
+
+require "thor/thor2"
diff --git a/lib/thor/base.rb b/lib/thor/base.rb
index c5f004e3e..fbb838f12 100644
--- a/lib/thor/base.rb
+++ b/lib/thor/base.rb
@@ -138,7 +138,8 @@ def attr_accessor(*) #:nodoc:
       end
 
       # If you want to raise an error for unknown options, call check_unknown_options!
-      # This is disabled by default to allow dynamic invocations.
+      # This is disabled by default in the Thor class to allow dynamic invocations.
+      # This is enabled by default in the Thor2 class
       def check_unknown_options!
         @check_unknown_options = true
       end
@@ -153,7 +154,8 @@ def check_unknown_options?(config) #:nodoc:
 
       # If you want to raise an error when the default value of an option does not match
       # the type call check_default_type!
-      # This is disabled by default for compatibility.
+      # This is disabled by default in the Thor class for compatibility.
+      # This is enabled by default in the Thor2 class
       def check_default_type!
         @check_default_type = true
       end
diff --git a/lib/thor/thor2.rb b/lib/thor/thor2.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..34b1ad45e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/thor/thor2.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+class Thor
+  class Thor2 < Thor
+    # This is a class to use instead of Thor when declaring your CLI
+    # This alternative works the same way as Thor, but has more common defaults:
+    #  * If there is a failure in the argument parsing and other Thor-side
+    #    things, the exit code will be non-zero
+    #  * Things that look like options but are not valid options will
+    #    will show an error of being unknown option instead of being
+    #    used as arguments.
+    #  * Make sure the default value of options is of the correct type
+    # For backward compatibility reasons, these cannot be made default in
+    # the regular `Thor` class
+    #
+    # This class is available in the top-level as Thor2, so you can do
+    # class MyCli < Thor2
+    #   ...
+    # end
+
+    # Fail on unknown options instead of treating them as argument
+    check_unknown_options!
+
+    # Make sure the default value of options is of the correct type
+    check_default_type!
+
+    # All failures should result in non-zero error code
+    def self.exit_on_failure?
+      true
+    end
+  end
+end
+
+::Thor2 = Thor::Thor2
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/thor2.thor b/spec/fixtures/thor2.thor
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b94d049d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/fixtures/thor2.thor
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+require "thor"
+
+class MySimpleThor2 < Thor2
+  class_option "verbose",   :type => :boolean
+  class_option "mode",      :type => :string
+
+  desc "checked", "a command with checked"
+  def checked(*args)
+    puts [options, args].inspect
+    [options, args]
+  end
+end
+
+MySimpleThor2.start(ARGV)
+
diff --git a/spec/helper.rb b/spec/helper.rb
index fa3bd0080..c4da8f455 100644
--- a/spec/helper.rb
+++ b/spec/helper.rb
@@ -80,4 +80,24 @@ def silence_warnings
   end
 
   alias silence capture
+
+  # Runs the fixture in a different process.
+  # Useful to deal with exit_on_failure?, which interrupts the tests when it calls `exit`
+  # This doesn't run on ruby 1.8.7
+  def run_thor_fixture_standalone(fixture, command)
+    gem_dir = File.expand_path("#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/..")
+    lib_path = "#{gem_dir}/lib"
+    script_path = "#{gem_dir}/spec/fixtures/#{fixture}.thor"
+    ruby_lib = ENV['RUBYLIB'].nil? ? lib_path : "#{lib_path}:#{ENV['RUBYLIB']}"
+
+    if command.is_a?(String)
+      full_command = "ruby #{script_path} #{command}"
+    elsif command.is_a?(Array)
+      full_command = ['ruby', script_path] + command
+    end
+
+    require 'open3'
+    stdout, stderr, status = Open3.capture3({'RUBYLIB' => ruby_lib}, *full_command)
+    [stdout, stderr, status]
+  end
 end
diff --git a/spec/script_exit_status_spec.rb b/spec/script_exit_status_spec.rb
index 45e04148b..409d4d0b6 100644
--- a/spec/script_exit_status_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/script_exit_status_spec.rb
@@ -20,10 +20,12 @@ def thor_command(command)
   end
 
   it "a command that raises a Thor::Error exits with a status of 1" do
-    expect(thor_command("error")).to eq(1)
+    _stdout, _stderr, status = run_thor_fixture_standalone('exit_status', ['error'])
+    expect(status.exitstatus).to eq(1)
   end
 
   it "a command that does not raise a Thor::Error exits with a status of 0" do
-    expect(thor_command("ok")).to eq(0)
+    _stdout, _stderr, status = run_thor_fixture_standalone('exit_status', ['ok'])
+    expect(status.exitstatus).to eq(0)
   end
 end if RUBY_VERSION > "1.8.7"
diff --git a/spec/thor2_spec.rb b/spec/thor2_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c1fa3741d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/thor2_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+require "helper"
+
+describe Thor2 do
+  describe "#check_unknown_options!" do
+    it "still accept options and arguments" do
+      stdout, _, status = run_thor_fixture_standalone('thor2', %w(checked command --verbose))
+
+      expect(stdout.strip).to eq [{"verbose" => true}, %w[command]].inspect
+      expect(status.exitstatus).to eq(0)
+    end
+
+    it "does not accept if non-option that looks like an option is after an argument and exits with code 1" do
+      _stdout, stderr, status = run_thor_fixture_standalone('thor2', %w(checked command --foo --bar))
+      expect(stderr.strip).to eq("Unknown switches '--foo, --bar'")
+      expect(status.exitstatus).to eq(1)
+    end
+  end if RUBY_VERSION > "1.8.7"
+
+  it "checks the default type" do
+    expect do
+      Class.new(Thor2) do
+        option "bar", :type => :numeric, :default => "foo"
+      end
+    end.to raise_error(ArgumentError, "Expected numeric default value for '--bar'; got \"foo\" (string)")
+  end
+end