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Before persuading Neo to discover the truth, Bugs reveals a rabbit tattoo on her shoulder. They then enter a portal leading to the interior of a moving train in Tokyo.

Here is the YouTube clip from The Matrix Resurrections (2021):

Neo: Where are we?

Bugs: Tokyo. A moving portal makes it harder to track us. Seq is the best of them.

Seq: Portal's clean. Reading our shadows.

Neo: I don't remember this.

Bugs: We don't have to run to phone booths anymore, either.

What does "either" refer to?

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    they no longer have to make a phone call from a booth to initiate a portal
    – jsotola
    Commented Sep 16 at 3:23
  • A Doctor Who allusion?
    – TimR
    Commented Sep 16 at 13:04
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    @TimR Unlikely. Phone booths acting as connections from the Matrix to the underlying network was a key plot point in the original movies.
    – RLH
    Commented Sep 16 at 16:20

3 Answers 3

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When used at the end of a sentence like this, either has a sense of additionally, as well. Bugs is talking about the benefits of a moving portal. In summary she says that such a portal makes it harder to track us. Additionally it means we don't have to run to a phone booth.

Edit (based on @tchrist comment)

Note that although either and also have the same meaning here, they are complementary in that either is used in negative contexts, while also is used in positive contexts.

For example:

This new phone has many benefits. It has several new apps. It has very efficient battery use also/as well. (positive sentence)
This new phone has many benefits. It has several new apps. It doesn't use much battery power either. (negative sentence)

These sentences have the same basic meaning but grammatically either and also are not interchangeable.

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    You've missed that either is a negative polarity item here. You can't use also with a negative sentence; you have to use either.
    – tchrist
    Commented Sep 17 at 9:21
  • @tchrist; Could you translate that for us laymen?
    – Nick Barnes
    Commented Sep 18 at 9:10
  • @NickBarnes, I've edited my answer with further examples.
    – Peter Kirkpatrick
    Commented Sep 18 at 9:32
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    @Peter: Thanks, that makes sense, though I thought you had the question pretty well covered already ;)
    – Nick Barnes
    Commented Sep 18 at 10:35
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In addition to the answer by Peter, which is completely correct, the phrase would sound a bit odd outside of certain contexts.

I haven't watched the film, but it looks like Neo has jumped into completely unfamiliar territory. The reason that Bugs uses "either" here is because she almost anticipates a question (which is never asked) from someone in unfamiliar surroundings, such as someone being transported way into the future.

If you could imagine a person from the Middle Ages seeing a toilet for the first time, they would be astonished to see that we don't throw sewage out of the window any more. A sort of tongue-in-cheek response to their facial reaction (not necessarily their words) would be to say "we don't have to be driven around by horses, either" to emphasise that their "archaic" notions or memories do not apply more broadly any more. Basically Bugs is saying - "you're in another world and we've moved on".

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  • Excellent addition, +1. A reminder that communication happens through both spoken and unspoken language.
    – Peter Kirkpatrick
    Commented Sep 16 at 19:24
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    People didn't throw sewage out of the window in the middle ages much either. That trope is more to do with 16-17th centuries where city population outgrew their latrines; they would be more likely to be surprised that we have enough clean drinking water to waste it flushing the stuff away rather than letting it fall down a chute from the garderobe into a cesspit. Also generally people drive horses, not the other way round; 'draw' is what the horse does to a carriage, 'drive' is what the carriage driver does to the horse.
    – Pete Kirkham
    Commented Sep 17 at 12:47
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    @PeteKirkham traditionally, phone booths were also not used for dial-up Internet connections into a world controlled by machines :P It was a hasty analogy
    – roganjosh
    Commented Sep 17 at 19:57
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It's not obvious to me neither what this refers to contextually, but I think she refers to what she says before: "A moving portal makes it harder to track us". Bugs' second comment would logically add to that with '(not) either'.

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