Warning: SPOILERS for Treadstone.
Like Jason Bourne himself, Treadstone agents are human weapons but they have weaknesses as well as formidable abilities. Executive produced by Tim Kring (Heroes), Treadstone is the new USA Network series set in the Bourne universe that unleashes a new breed of super-soldier from Operation: Treadstone. Dubbed "Assets", the men and women of Treadstone are all in deep cover when they're unexpectedly activated to resume new, mysterious missions. Like the Bourne movies, Treadstone has no lack of intense, blistering action.
Naturally, fans are most familiar with Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), the Treadstone Asset who went rogue in 2002's The Bourne Identity and brought down the secret CIA program that created him, Operation: Treadstone - for a while. Treadstone reveals the program was bigger than anyone thought and covertly continued in the years after the original Bourne movie trilogy wrapped up. Indeed, a new generation was recruited into Treadstone to be brainwashed and trained to become deadly killers. They were then placed under new identities around the world as "Cicadas"; they lived 'ordinary' lives totally unaware of being Treadstone Assets until they are suddenly activated.
Treadstone is also a prequel to the Bourne films which reveals the origins of the top-secret program are rooted in CIA experiments in using drugs for mind control in the 1950s. In 1973, the brainwashing techniques of Soviet scientist Dr. Gustav Meisner were used by the KGB to kidnap CIA agent John Randolph Bentley (Jeremy Irvine). Bentley was trained and brainwashed by the Soviets for 9 months and turned into the first Cicada and the prototype Treadstone Asset; essentially, Bentley was the original Jason Bourne. But while the Assets possess awesome fighting abilities, their brainwashing also causes certain side effects and weaknesses.
Treadstone Agents' Abilities & Fighting Styles
Treadstone introduces three main Assets: J. Randolph Bentley in 1973 Berlin and in the present day, Doug McKenna (Brian J. Smith) and SoYun Pak (Han Hyo-joo). McKenna is a recently unemployed oil driller in Alaska, though he's a married man who lives in Kentucky. Meanwhile, SoYun is a piano teacher and mother to a young son; her husband is a soldier in North Korea. Both McKenna and SoYun are totally unaware they are Treadstone Assets; when they are activated, their fighting abilities are immediately unlocked.
Like Jason Bourne, the Treadstone Assets' fighting style is a combination of two martial arts disciplines, Filipino Kali and Jeet Kune Do. Although Assets are proficient with firearms, their hand-to-hand combat style centers on close-quarter combat and the ability to utilize any object around them as weapons. Kali is also known as Escrima and emphasizes a weapon-based fighting system that utilizes sticks, knives, bladed weapons and various objects…such as a pen or even a book. Jeet Kune Do has a philosophy and fighting style developed by Bruce Lee that involves adaptation ("Be formless and shapeless like water") and economy of motion. While fans recall Jason Bourne scaling buildings, in Treadstone, SoYun is uniquely agile and is able to scamper across a steel cable between two buildings. So, each Treadstone Asset also has specialized abilities that have yet to be discovered.
Treadstone later introduces other Assets like Nira Patel (Shruti Haasan), who is based in India, and American Stephen Haynes (Patrick Fugit). Haynes displayed extremely skilled and fast target selection with a handgun that is standard for Treadstone while Patel utilized poison for assassination, a different tactic for an Asset.
Treadstone Agents' Weaknesses
Amnesia is the root of the Treadstone Assets' weaknesses. Jason Bourne suffered from this, but his affliction was different from Treadstone's new Assets'. The Cicada agents' amnesia was total; they completely believed their cover lives and identities until they were activated by hearing the French nursery rhyme "Frère Jacques". But once activated, the Cicadas like McKenna and SoYun still had no idea they were part of Treadstone or remembered who they used to be. The brainwashing can also involve them experiencing hallucinations. Further, Stephen Haynes exhibited severe side effects where he remembered the trauma of his brainwashing, which drove him insane and turned him into an uncontrollable weapon. This means the Assets of Treadstone can be as great a danger to themselves and others as they are to their targets.