diff --git a/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb b/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb
index d419a09ec5..b0f713b049 100755
--- a/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb
+++ b/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb
@@ -1029,7 +1029,8 @@ module ActionController #:nodoc:
       # RedirectBackError will be raised. You may specify some fallback
       # behavior for this case by rescuing RedirectBackError.
       def redirect_to(options = {}, response_status = {}) #:doc: 
-        
+        raise ActionControllerError.new("Cannot redirect to nil!") if options.nil?
+
         if options.is_a?(Hash) && options[:status] 
           status = options.delete(:status) 
         elsif response_status[:status] 
diff --git a/actionpack/test/controller/redirect_test.rb b/actionpack/test/controller/redirect_test.rb
index 5642792ca2..571d5b1f5a 100755
--- a/actionpack/test/controller/redirect_test.rb
+++ b/actionpack/test/controller/redirect_test.rb
@@ -77,6 +77,10 @@ class RedirectController < ActionController::Base
     redirect_to Workshop.new(5, true)
   end
 
+  def redirect_to_nil
+    redirect_to nil
+  end
+
   def rescue_errors(e) raise e end
     
   def rescue_action(e) raise end
@@ -215,6 +219,13 @@ class RedirectTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     get :redirect_to_new_record
     assert_equal "http://test.host/workshops", redirect_to_url
   end
+
+  def test_redirect_to_nil
+    assert_raises(ActionController::ActionControllerError) do
+      get :redirect_to_nil
+    end
+  end
+
 end
 
 module ModuleTest