diff --git a/stage1/words.s b/stage1/words.s
index 147a439..0ff5b49 100644
--- a/stage1/words.s
+++ b/stage1/words.s
@@ -284,6 +284,12 @@ INITIAL_WORDS:
         .ascii "words$"
         .balign 8
 
+        .quad shutdown
+        .byte 9
+        .byte LISP_OBJECT_TYPE_INTEGER
+        .ascii "shutdown$"
+        .balign 8
+
         # end
         .quad 0
         .quad 0
diff --git a/stage2/make.mk b/stage2/make.mk
index 085113c..63ed654 100644
--- a/stage2/make.mk
+++ b/stage2/make.mk
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 stage2.lsp: $(wildcard stage2/*.lsp)
 	# strip comments
 	sed -E '/^ *(;.*)?$$/d' $^ > stage2.lsp
+	if [[ "${SHUTDOWN}" == 1 ]]; then \
+		echo "(call-native shutdown$$ 0)" >> stage2.lsp \
+	fi
 
 clean-stage2:
 	rm -f stage2.lsp