People keep asking did Loomis kill Caleb ? The obvious answer to that question is we don't know. The scene doesn't stay there long enough to give a definitive answer. The question you can ask yourself is do you think Loomis is capable of killing Caleb or is Caleb willing to walk away like Loomis suggested. I personally think Loomis is capable but I cannot say for sure if he did because we never see it.
shareI thought John let him go and fall to his death.
He seemed to be feeling pangs of guilt later as he walked to the edge of the cliff over the river and maybe contemplated his actions.
If John had let Caleb go where he was, he would have taken out the water flume that was the last thing they put in place. It probably would have taken out part of the wheel too depending on the weight of the suit and what it was made out of.
However, the movie makes a point to show John at the spot where Caleb fell again, and that the flume and wheel are intact.
So the main problems with the theories that John let Caleb fall are:
1. It would have broken or at least severely damaged the flume.
2. The fall would have damaged the suit, then how would John have gotten Caleb's body out of the water?
3. John is seen working very hard to pull Caleb up. if he had really wanted to drop him, there was a better opportunity for him to have done that. When he unhooked the line, Caleb was already at the top and standing.
I don't know exactly what happened to Caleb, but he didn't fall from the point where we saw him last.
Caleb perished, the first time the line slipped he was saved because John had no time to think about it. The second time he slipped it dawned on John, now's the time - drop him.
Caleb already stated he didn't believe John when he said she only wanted him for one night, and he was enraged by the fact that he said he loved her and she turned her back on him.
Dude was mincemeat. John either fixed whatever broke after Caleb's body crashed into it or he missed it all together.
He fished him out with a stick or buried him by throwing rocks on top of him - who really cares? Maybe he went back and told her he slipped, and she (being the gullible women that she was) believed him?!
Of course he did, but it is irrelevant and distracting right at the end
to actually show the deed, because that would prejudice the viewers
against the murderer ... and with good cause.
These characters are supposed to be kind of symbols, so what would
anyone do, and why?