A late John Rankin double cancelled out two from Falkirk's Anthony Stokes and followed a lifeline Craig Dargo goal.
The early action saw Falkirk retain possession, but never in the danger areas. It fell to a long-distance Russell Latapy effort on 11 minutes to create the first real chance, but his shot dipped over the top.
Latapy continued to threaten and only a great saving tackle from Grant Munro halted the attacker as he prepared to shoot after dancing into the penalty area.
Falkirk snatched the lead five minutes before the break when Stokes collected a fine pass from Latapy and slipped a low finish under goalkeeper Mark Brown.
The Bairns doubled their advantage just after half-time when Latapy took advantage of a Rankin error to beat four men and tee up Stokes for his second.
On 68 minutes, Caley Thistle were back in the game when Dargo met a Rankin corner to set up an interesting finish.
With eight minutes to go, Rankin swerved a curling 25-yard free-kick into the net to open his account for the club and peg the scores at 2-2.
The home dream was complete just three minutes later when Rankin's speculative free-kick caught out Scott Higgins.