Plot
An elderly man at The Shady Rest Retirement Home in East Texas is known to the staff as Sebastian Haff, but claims to be the real Elvis Presley. He explains that during the 1970s, he grew tired of the demands of his fame and switched places with an Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff; he claims it was Haff who died in 1977, while he lived in quiet, happy anonymity and made a living pretending to be himself. After a propane explosion destroyed documentation which was the only proof that he was actually Elvis, he was unable to return to his old life. He also falls into a coma after injuring himself during a performance.
Twenty years later in the present, Elvis contemplates his age and dignity; his only friend is a man named Jack who insists he is President John F. Kennedy (who was nicknamed Jack) claiming to have had his skin dyed black after an assassination attempt and abandoned by Lyndon Johnson in a nursing home. Initially skeptical of Jack's story, Elvis does spot a mysterious scar on the back of Jack's head, but is ultimately unsure of its origin.
Eventually, Elvis and Jack are forced to face off against a re-animated ancient Egyptian mummy that was stolen during a U.S. museum tour, and then lost during a severe storm in East Texas when the thieves' bus veered into a river near the nursing home. The mummy takes on the garb of a cowboy and feeds on the souls of the residents of the home. Jack surmises that it feeds at the nursing home because the residents are weak and that nobody will suspect that it is killing them off. It is dubbed "Bubba Ho-Tep" by Elvis, who has a telepathic flashback of the mummy's life and death when he looks into its eyes. Due to their age, Jack and Elvis lack mobility and use a motorized wheelchair and a walker to get around the grounds.
Elvis and Jack create an elaborate plan to destroy the mummy. Destruction of the mummy would release the trapped souls of the other inhabitants, and they would be able to go to their final resting place. Elvis and Jack battle the mummy in the middle of the night, with Jack in an electric wheelchair and Elvis wielding a makeshift flamethrower. Jack is knocked out of his wheelchair by the mummy and is about to have his soul devoured; Elvis commandeers the wheelchair and taunts the mummy to draw it off Jack. With the mummy doused, set aflame, fallen on the ground, and burning, Elvis rouses the dying Jack long enough to receive a useless incantation. The mummy standing again, Elvis crashes himself and the wheelchair into the mummy. The two tumble down the riverbank below the bridge; Elvis receiving a deep mortal wound. Resigned to his death, Elvis knocks over the broken sprayer, spilling the rest of the gasoline towards the mummy. He throws a match to relight the mummy, killing it this time.
Elvis lies near the riverbank, dying from the gash and broken ribs. He contemplates that he does not fear death, knowing he still has his soul and has saved everyone at the Shady Rest Retirement Home. Reflecting on this, the stars align into a message for Elvis, saying: "all is well". Elvis says, "Thank you, thank you very much", and dies.
